PISCES. 31.3 



closed, the lower jaw with an eminence in the 

 middle fitting into a corresponding hollow in 

 the upper : teeth extremely minute : two dorsals 

 widely separated : ventrals a little behind the 

 pectorals: branchiostegous membrane with six 

 rays. 



25. MUGIL. 



26. ATHERINA* Body elongated : mouth very 



protractile : teeth minute : two dorsals widely separate : 

 ventrals behind the pectorals : branchiostegous membrane 

 with six rays : a broad silver band along each side. 



IX. GOBIADJE. Body elongated: one or two 

 dorsals: the spinous rays always slender and 

 flexible. 



27. BLENNIUS Ventrals before the pectorals, very 



much reduced : body elongated, compressed, smooth, 

 covered with small scales: gill-opening large; the mem- 

 brane continued across the breast : a single dorsal, com- 

 posed almost entirely of simple flexible rays. 



(1. BLENNIUS.) Teeth long, even, close-set, forming a single row; 

 the last in the series sometimes longer than the others, and 

 curved: ventrals of two or three rays. 



(2. GUNNELLUS.) Teeth short, in more than one row: ventrals 

 extremely small, reduced nearly to a single ray: dorsal ex- 

 ' tending the whole length; all the rays simple, and without 

 articulations. 



28. ZOARCESf Ventrals before the pectorals, small, 

 with three rays : body elongated, covered with a mucous 



* Cuvier places this genus between the Mugilidce and the Gobiadce, observing that it will not 

 exactly associate with either. 



t This genus has been probably misplaced by authors. It seems (as Nilsson observes) to shew 

 more affinity to the Malacopterygian Fishes, especially to some of the Gadidce. It is a curious 

 circumstance that the Zoarces viviparus and the Lota vulgaris should have obtained the same 

 English name (that of Eel-Pout,) in some parts of the country. 



