148 Slorefs Synopsis of the Fishes of North .America. 

 ORDER II. MALACOPTERYGII. SOFT RAYED. 



All the fin rays soft and cartilaginous, with the exception sometimes of the 

 first in the dorsal and the first in the pectoral fins. These rays are of an ar- 

 ticulated structure, and generally more or less branched at their extremities. 



ABDOMINALES. 



The ventrals behind the pectorals, and not attached to the humeral bone. 



FAMILY XV. SILURLBvE. 



Skin naked, and covered with a mucous secretion. In some genera, the 

 body is nearly covered by osseous plates. Head depressed, and generally en- 

 larged, with several fleshy filaments. A second adipose dorsal often present. 

 The intermaxillaries, suspended under the ethmoid bone, form the edge of the 

 upper jaw. First ray of the dorsal and pectoral fins usually a strong, articu- 

 lated spine, with a complicated movement. 



GENUS I. BAGRUS, Cuv. 



Behind the intermaxillary band of velvety teeth, another band, sometimes 

 velvety and sometimes in a single range. The number of their barbels, and 

 the form of their head, serve as characters for subdivision. 



1. Bagrus mesops, Cuv. 



Eye at half the distance hetween the extremity of the snout and the edge of the preoper- 

 cle ; the interparietal is only a sixth the length of the head, and its edges diverge. The en- 

 tire helmet with compact granulations ; the opercle is granulated near the articulation, and 

 has closely crowded veins. Ventrals as long as the pectorals, and their rays singularly 

 knotted. The maxillary barbel does not extend beyond the middle of the pectorals. 



D. 1 - 7. P. (?). V. (?). A. 18. C. (?). Length, 16 to 17 inches. 



Caribbean Sea, Cuv. 



Le Bagre mesops, Bagrus mesops, Cuv. et Val., xiv. p. 456.. 



2. Bagrus proops, Cuv. 



Of a beautiful plumbeous slate-color, beneath white. The eyes three times nearer to the 

 tip of the snout than to the edge of the preopercle. The opercular angle granulated, sharp, 



