270 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



Classifica- No spines in the fins. Jaws and front of tlie vomer with pointed 



tion Ana- teeth, of unequal height, producing card-like or raduliform patches. 



canths. Branchiostegals seven. One or more dorsal fins. Stomach capa- 



t , ^ ' cious, ca'cal ; pancreatic caica numerous. A large air-bladder with 

 strong walls, often denticulated at the sides; a large branch of the 

 casliac artery perforates the fibrous coat of the air-bladder, and 

 divides into a dense network inclosing long corpuscles with fine 

 villiform processes, producing together one of the organs named 

 vaso-ganglion, which exists in the air-bladders of many other 

 fishes. 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OP THE GADID^ (Dam.) 



Dorsal single. 



Vertical fins separate BKOSMItIS 



Vertical fins united Bkotula 



Dorsals several. 

 Dorsals tioo. 



Barbels three ; one rostral Motella 



Barbels one. 



Jugulars of many rays Lot A 



Jugulars of one forked ray Phycis 



Barbels none ; one anal Merluccius 



Dorsals three, 

 Anals two. 



„ , , . f Gadus L. 1 



Barbels consp.cuous | MoRRHUA C. J 



Barbels none SIerlangus 



Atlantic divisions of the ocean. Figures 30, 32, 33, and 

 34 represent the scales of several Mucronri, remarkable for 

 their discal spines, but differing from the ciliated scales 

 named Ctenoid. The subjoined woodcut represents Ma- 

 crourus australis. 



Classifica- 

 tion — Ana- 

 can ths. 



6. 



5. 

 10. 



4. 



Genus I. Gadus, Linn, parti'm. (J/orriua, Cuv.) Three dorsal 

 fins; two anals ; a symphysial mandibular barbel. 



Genus IL Gadiculus, Guich. Resembles Morrhua in the fins, 

 but the barbels are wanting, as in Merlangns. Body elongated, 

 compressed. Head small, scaleless ; jaw teeth pointed, ranged in 

 many rows. Chiefly distinguished by the bigness of the eyes, and 

 the want of vomerine teeth ; the mandible projects a little. Al- 

 giers. 



Genus \\l. JFeelangus, Cuv. Oadi, without barbels. 

 Genus IV. Merluccius, Cuv. Two dorsal fins ; one anal fin. 

 No barbels. 



Genus V. Lota, Cuv. Two dorsal fins ; one anal fin. Barbels. 

 Genus VI. Motella, Cuv. Number of fins as in Lota, but the 

 first dorsal scarcely perceptible. 



Genus VII. Brosmius, Cuv. A single long dorsal reaching 

 very near to the caudal. 



Genus VUI. Brotula, Cuv. Vertical fins uniting at the end 

 of the tail to form one pointed fin. 



Genus IX. Ateleopus, Schleg. Snout very thick over the 

 mouth, which is protrusive beneath. A band of card-like teeth 

 above and below ; vomer and palatines toothless. Ventrals on the 

 throat one-rayed; a small dorsal over the pectorals; anal very long; 

 caudal small. Japan. 



Genus X. Phycis, Artedi, Schneid. Ventrals of a single ray, 

 which is often forked. Head large. A symphysial mandibular 

 barbel. Two dorsals, the second one long. 



Genus XI. Raniceps, Cuv. Head more depressed than in other 

 genera of this family. Anterior dorsal almost eoncealed in the 

 thickness of the skin. 



Genus XII. Bythites, Rein. Body compressed, thicker an- 

 teriorly. Profile of head bluntly rounded. Tail ensiform, tapering 

 to a point. Scales minute, round, imbricated. Lateral line intei'- 

 rupted over the anus. Teeth acute on the premaxillaries, mandible, 

 vomer, and palatines. Branchiostegals eight, the membranes uniting 

 under the isthmus with a free edge ; gill-openings very large. 

 Ventrals jugular, of one filiform ray, each very long; vertical fins 

 united, without any distinction of the caudal ; rays jointed, divided. 

 A very thick, conical, three-pointed papilla projected backwards 

 behind the anus. No pneumatic tube to the air-bladder. One 

 species. 



MACROURIDS. 



This family consists of a single genus, which stands next 

 to the Gadoids in the Regne Animal, and certainly has many 

 portions of structure of a similar character, particularly 

 the tiu-ning down of the edge of the suborbitars, but these 

 bones are much more developed than in Gadus, and their 

 reverted plates appear on the surface of the cheek covered 

 with rough scales. The Macrourids are inhabitants of deep 

 water like most of the Gadoids, and have not been disco- 

 vered near the equator, though they exist in both the north- 

 ern and southern hemispheres, and in the Pacific as well as 



Fig. 91. 

 Macrourtts australis. 



Family II.— MACROURIDS. 



Turbinals largely developed, forming, by apposition of their 

 plates, a thin, high, mesial crest, and a lateral wing-like process on 

 each side ; these, in conjunction with the reverted plate of the pre- 

 orbitar, support a more or less elongated snout, which is generally, 

 perhaps always, acute. Body highest and fullest at tiie pectoral 

 region, compressed and dagger-shaped posteriorly, or tapering to 

 an acute point. Ventrals, pectorals, and first dorsal, in a vertical 

 line ; first dorsal short and higli ; anal and second dorsal long and 

 even, uniting at the point of the tail without any distinction of 

 caudal. Anus in the anterior quarter of the fish. Teeth fine, villi- 

 form on the jaws ; palatines, vomer, and tongue edentate ; mouth 

 horizontal, inferior behind the projecting snout ; premaxillaries 

 forming the border of the upper jaw, and protractile directly down- 

 wards, their long pedicels moving under a vault formed by the 

 turbinals ; maxillaries behind the premaxillaries, gliding partially 

 under the reverted edge of the preorbitar. Scales studded with 

 acute spines, varying in form and number with the species. Eye 

 large ; head encased by the scaly surfaces of muclferous bones. 

 Branchiostegals six. Stomach globular ; numerous pancreatic 

 Cceca. 



Genus I. Macrourus, Bloch. (Lepidoleprus, Risso.) Nine 

 or ten species in the temperate and colder seas of the northern and 

 southern hemispheres. 



REMORA FAMILY. 



The EcheneididcB stand in Cuvier's Regne A?iimal next 

 to the Discoholes, but MUller has transferred the latter to 

 Gohiidte, making them a subordinate tribe under the appel- 

 lation of Cyclopodi, and associating with them generally the 

 fishes that have disks which can be used as suckers. Bo- 

 naparte jjlaces the Eiheneides as a group subordinate to his 

 Gadi. The absence of spinous rays seems to point out the 

 Anacanthini as their most appropriate order, but the same 

 reason might bring several Gobioid genera with them. One 

 species, however, of Echeneis has bony compressed rays in 

 the pectoral, terminated by a little crenulated disk, and some 

 have considered the disk on the head in this genus to be 

 a modified first dorsal fin. 



The extraordinary power possessed by this fish {Echeneis 

 remora), of adhering tenaciously to any flattish surface, was 

 known to ancient writers, as well as to the curious inquirers 

 of modern times. Pliny luxuriates upon it with his usual 

 discursive verbosity, ancl the reader may possibly be amused 

 by Philemon Holland's translation of the passages in ques- 

 tion : — " Having so far proceeded in the discourse of na- 

 ture's historic, that I am now arrived at the very height of 

 her forces, and come into a world of examples, I cannot 

 chuse but in the first place consider the power of her ope- 

 rations, and the infinitncsse of her secrets, which offer them- 

 selves before our eyes in the sea : for in no part else of this 



