40 Xatural H'lstonj and Anatoviical Descripiion 



The mouth is large, and furnished with a double row of 

 equal, fine, and sharp teeth, placed very near to each other, 

 flic cavity of it is filled by a tongue exceedingly thick, free, 

 and not covered with teeth, as in the esnccs. On the sides 

 of the mouth there arc two prolonged lips, the upper one 

 of which only is supported by a cartilage. This cartilage 

 is nothing else than a thick tendon : a little above, towards . 

 the place where the moveable lip begins, there is found a 

 small barbillon two lines in length, and between the two 

 barbillons two small holes which are the apertures of the 

 nostrils. 



The eve is situated behind and on the sides of the head ; 

 it is flattened, and deeply lodged in the cavitv. 



\Y. Of the general Teguments. — The b'icliir is cased in 

 armour nearly in the same manner as the esox-cayman : 

 its scales are large, thick, rhoniboidal, strongly fixed in the 

 skin, and distributed obliquely in bands : each of these 

 bands begins at the middle line of the back and ends at the 

 'middle line of the belly, in such a manner as to form with 

 the band of the opposite side an angle of nearly 45 de- 

 grees. 



The general colour of the lic/tir is a sea-green ; the belly 

 inclines a little to a dirty white: this colour is set off by 

 some black irregular spots, more numerous towards the tail 

 than the head. The lateral line is straight, and not very 

 visible. The general size of the iic/iir is one foot six inches 

 in length. 



V. Organs of Digestion. — The I'ichir in this respect ap- 

 proaches more to the rays than the esoccs, with which one 

 might at first be tempted to class it. At the extrcniity of 

 a very spacious oesophagus^ one inch two lines in length, 

 is found the stomach, four inches five lines in length and 

 one inch two lines in breadth : it is cylindiic in a part of 

 Mi length, and conical at the extremity. The intestine, 

 which originates at the upper pait of the stomach, first rises, 

 and then folding itself back proceeds straight to the anus; 

 a little below the arch which it forms tliere is found a very 

 short coecum five lines in length, wanting in m.ost of the 

 esoccs, which proceeds tov.ards the head. In the inside of 

 the intestinal canal there is observed, as in the squali and 

 rays, a menibrane fixed to the intestine bv one of its edges 

 and rolled up in such a manner as to form by its diO'erent 

 folds so many cells, which stoj) the course of the aliments 

 and make them remain in the intestine the time necessary 

 for digestion. Though this wonderful mechanism, which 

 niakcs up lor the shortiiess of the intestines, is already 



known, 



