GEN. GYMNETRUS. HAWKINS GYMNETRUS. 237 



Valenciennes (x. 259), belong to the Mediterranean; 

 two are found at the Cape and in the East Indies, 

 and several are supposed to be inhabitants of Euro- 

 pean seas. Great doubt, however, hangs over the 

 last of these, even Hawkins' Gymnetrus being very 

 properly catalogued by Mr. Jenyns as doubtful. 



(Sp. 58.) G. llaicknil (PL XVI.) Our know- 

 ledge of this species rests mainly upon the authority 

 of Bloch, who states that he received a specimen, 

 taken in the Eastern Ocean, near Goa, from an 

 Englishman named Hawkins, which was mutilated, 

 wanting its tail. Mr. Couch, in the 14th vol. of the 

 Linnean Transactions, states that an individual of this 

 species was drawn ashore, dead and mutilated, in a 

 net in Mount's Bay, in February 1791- Its length, 

 without the tail, was eight feet and a half, its depth 

 ten inches and a half, thickness two inches and 

 three-quarters, and weight 40 lbs. In this fish the 

 dorsal fin reaches from above the eye to the tail : 

 the ventrals are formed of four long red processes 

 proceeding from the thorax, and ending in a fan- 

 shaped appendage, the base of which is purple, the 

 expansion crimson : the back and belly are dusky 

 green, the sides whitish, the whole shaded with clouds 

 and spots of a darker green ; the other fins crimson. 

 M. Valenciennes, who with his usual care and 

 accuracy endeavoured to unravel the confusion pro- 

 duced by the imperfect accounts, has arrived at the 

 conclusion that the materials which supplied the 

 account of Mr. Couch's description, were those em- 

 ployed also for Bloch's ; and, by a still further and 



