ICHTHYOLOGY. 



303 



Classifica- high dorsal is over the posterior half of the pectorals, occupying 



lion — ■ hut little of tlie bacli, while the long anal resembles that of Brama. 



Acanthop- Eye large. Air-bladder double as in Mt/ripristr's. Resembles A'ur- 



terous lus, but differs in the magnitude of the scales on the fins. Its 



Fishes, short dorsal and scaly anal, with the existence of vomerine and 



*• M M ^ palatine teeth, separate the genus from the Sparidae. Eight 



species. 



Genus XXIII. Toxotes, Cuv. A short compressed body, with 

 the dorsal placed on the posterior half of the back. Very strong 

 spinous rays ; the soft parts and the anal scaly, and opposite to 

 each other. Scales large. Snout depressed, short ; mandible ad- 

 vancing beyond the premaxillary. Very short, close, villiform teeth 

 on the jaws, end of the vomer, and palatines ; also on the ptery- 

 goids and tongue. Jlinute denticulations on tlie border of the pre- 

 orbitar and preoperculum. Stomach short and large ; twelve pan- 

 creatic cieca ; air-bladder large and thin-coated. One species. 



Genus XXIV. Hoplegnathus, liich. (March 1841.) (Scaro- 

 don, Schleg. 1S44.) Compressed oval C'ha;todontoids, with the 

 soft dorsal and anal opposite, and scaly ; spinous portion of the 

 dorsal longer, but lower than the soft part ; ventrals a little behind 

 the pectorals. Jaws and teeth of Scarus. Scales feebly ctenoid, 

 imbedded deeply in the skin, few on the head, and confined to the 

 temporal region. Branchiostegals seven. Three or four species. 



RIBBON-FISH. 



A natural family nearly allied to the Scomberoids, and 

 having bones of a still looser texture than the Mackerels, 

 in most little more solid than a fibrous net-work. Cuvier 

 included Lepidopiis and Tricliiurus in this family, but we 

 have followed M. Valenciennes in placing these two genera 

 at the end of the first tribe of Scomberoids, and along with 

 them Nemichth/s, whose greatest affinity seems to be with 

 Trichiurus. M. Valenciennes, however, considers the two 

 genera in question to be a link between the families, and 

 to be connected with the elongated Scomberoids by their 

 strong compressed curved teeth ; while they have an equal 

 relationship to the Tsenioids by the presence of ventrals 

 merely in a rudimentary condition, or their entire absence. 



The first tribe, being the Ribbon-fish, which have small 

 mouths, includes tliose to which this family name applies 

 best, because species exist which are nine or ten feet long, 

 yet are not six inches high, and scarcely an inch thick. 

 The Trachypteri have several rays in the ventrals ; the 

 Gijninetri only one or two filamentous rays ; and Stylepho- 

 riis, still imperfectly known, appears to be truly apodal. 

 Few fish of so much interest, from the singularity of their 

 appearance, and the peculiarities of their structure, are so 

 imperfectly known. This arises in a great measure from 

 the delicacy of their texture. They are constructed for in- 

 habiting the still waters of great depths, and are seldom 

 seen except when thrown ashore in tem|)ests. Their tender 

 fins are easily mutilated, their thin soft flesh rapidly decays, 

 their bones have too little firmness to keep the skeleton 

 together when rudely handled, and they almost never come 

 before a naturalist in a perfect condition. M. Valenciennes 

 had twenty individuals under examination when he drew 

 up his history of the family, and he has done much to re- 

 move the confusion which the imperfect and contradictory 

 descriptions of authors, framed on mutilated specimens, had 

 created. The Trachypteri, he says, are extremely tender, 

 and their fins brittle, and their entire form can be seen in 

 very young individuals only. The woodcut fig. 4 repre- 

 sents one species, TracJii/ptenis fcilx, v^■hich has 168 rays 

 in its dorsal fin, and plumes of rays on the head and tail. 

 This fish shines with the most brilliant silvery tints, and 

 when moving freely in the water, its varying hues relieved 

 by three large round black spots on the sides, must render 

 it one of the prettiest of the many elegant fish that the 

 seas produce. The anatomy of Trachi/pleriis leiopterus is 

 given in the Histoire des Poissons, and the stomach is there 

 described as caecal, long, and narrow, with a very short as- 

 cending pyloric branch arising from its lower third part. 

 The pancreatic caeca are almost innumerable, and open 



into the intestine by two parallel rows of holes. It had no 

 air-bladder. The Vaagmaer, or Deal-Jish, has also been 

 recorded by Dr Fleming as a British s])ecies. It is the 

 Trachypterus borpnariis of the Histoire des Poissons, the 

 Gymtiitrus or Gymnogasler arcticus of jirevious authors, 

 and is described in the A atural History of Iceland, written 

 in I6o8 by Jon Gundmunsen, a native of that island. 

 Nilsson includes it among the Norwegian fish, but as one 

 very rarely seen. The Supplement to Yarrell's British 

 Fishes contains a figure and description of one taken in 

 Iceland, translated from a memoir by Reinhardt, curator of 

 the Museum at Copenhagen. The Gymnelrus Hawhinsii 

 is another rare British Ribbon-fish. The Stylephorus 

 chordatus of Shaw was taken in the Gulf of Mexico, and is 

 known only by a single specimen in possession of the Col- 

 lege of Surgeons of London, but which is not, unfortunately, 

 in the best condition. The long filament from which it 

 derives its name is considered by Blainville to be a pro- 

 longed ray of the caudal fin, and not a lengthened spine as 

 in Trichiurus. The Cepola ruhescens. Red-band Fish or 

 Red-snake Fish, belonging to the second tribe of Ribbon- 

 fish, though not common on the English coast, is sometimes 

 taken in numbers, as was the case about twelve years ago 

 in Torbay. 



Family XIX.— T^NIID^. 



T.ENIOIDES OU P01S.SONS EN RuBAN, Cuv. Compressed, elon- 

 gated, ribbon-shaped fish. Skin naked and silvery. Long dorsal 

 often joined to the caudal ; the anal when it exists similarly con- 

 nected ; the articulated fin-rays for the most part simple ; soft 

 rays of the ventral never exceeding five, sometimes reduced to one 

 or two, attached to the throat. This character brings them near 

 the Blennies, while the small mouth and protractile snout of 

 !Pi-ackypterus indicate some analogy with the Zeiides. 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF THE Tj^NIID^ (Dum.) 



Dorsal conspicuous, and 



Long, without sjyines CepoLA 4. 



Short, and far back LoPHOTES 5. 



Dorsal none. 



Lateral line armed ivith spinous scales Tkachypterus 1. 



Lateral line not scalij. 



Ventrals uniradiate Gymnetkus 2. 



Ventrals none Stylephorus 3. 



Tribe I. — Mouth not wide ; jaw 'protractile. 



Genus I. Trachy'PTERUS, Cuv. (Bogmarits and Gymnogaster^ 

 auct.) Pectorals of moderate size or small ; ventrals often greatly 

 developed, attached under the axilla of the pectorals, and having 

 several soft rays (four to seven). Body elongated and compressed 

 like a ribbon or blade of a sword ; skirted along the whole dorsal 

 edge by the dorsal fin, the anterior part of which, separated by a 

 notch, rises like a tall slender fan. Mouth extremely protrac- 

 tile. Caudal having an upper lobe similar to the first dorsal in 

 form and heiglit, and a few very short rays on the lower lobe ; be- 

 tween these there is a small filament. Lateral line armed with 

 scales, each carrying a hook. Jaws with visible teeth. Skeleton 

 fibrous, but extremely tender. Fins brittle and wearing down by 

 age. Branchiostegals six or seven. Six species. 



Genus II. Gvmnetrus, Cuv. Ventrals reduced to a single 

 elongated ray, which is often dilated at the extremity. Branchio- 

 stegals four, five, or six. Kight species. 



Genus III. .Stylephorus, Shaw. Trachvpteri with the point 

 of the tail prolonged in form of a slender cord twice the length of 

 the body. Dorsal commencing over the operculum, and extending 

 to very near the posterior extremity of tlie fish, on which is the 

 caudal, placed so as to resemble a second dorsal ; the long cord which 

 terminates the tail is the lower ray of this caudal. No visible 

 scales. No visible trace of ventrals. One species. 



Tribe II. — Tceniidm, with a moderately large mouth. 



Genus IV. Cepola, Linn. Head much like thai oi Amhlyopus mi 

 Ophidium, but with a large eye. Body greatly elongated and very 

 much compressed, with a dorsal reaching from the head to the 

 caudal, and an anal but little shorter. Caudal pointed ; ventrals 



