482 PISCES (OSSEI) MALACOPT. [AMMODYTES. 



Dowager Dutchess of Portland, and which also was referred to the 

 Linnsean species, is likewise uncertain; Pennant having published no 

 description of his fish, and his figure being very unlike that given by 

 Montagu. Montagu's specimen was taken among rocks at low water. 



GEN. 65. AMMODYTES, Linn. 



170. A. TobianuS) Bloch. (Wide-mouthed Launce.) 

 Gape large ; maxillaries long ; the pedicels of the 

 intermaxillaries very short : dorsal commencing in a line 

 with the extremities of the pectorals. 



A. Tobianus, Bloch, Ichth. pi. 75. f. 2. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 87. 

 Cuv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 360. A. lanceolatus, Lesauv. in Bull, 

 des Sd. Nat. (1825.) torn. iv. p. 262. A. Anglorum verus, Jago 

 in Rays Syn. Pise. p. 165. pi. 2. f. 12. Sand Launce, Penn. Brit. 

 Zool. vol. in. p. 156. but not pi. 25. no. 66. Id. (Edit. 1812.) 

 vol. in. p. 206. but not pi. 28. 



LENGTH. From ten to fifteen inches and a half. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Slender, and very much elongated : body square, 

 but with the angles somewhat rounded, approaching cylindrical, and of 

 nearly equal thickness throughout : greatest depth contained about six- 

 teen times in the entire length : head an elongated cone, forming one- 

 fifth of the same: lower jaw projecting far beyond the upper, and 

 terminating in a point ; the upper one slightly rounded at its extremity : 

 scarcely any perceptible teeth, excepting two long sharp teeth on the 

 front of the vomer directed downwards : gape very wide on account of the 

 great length of the maxillaries ; intermaxillaries (compared with those of 

 the next species) with the pedicels very short : when the mouth is fully 

 opened, the upper jaw turns up at its extremity, and the maxillaries 

 become vertical, drawing after them the sides of the lower jaw, which, 

 ascending from behind, become vertical also, and parallel to the former : 

 gill-opening very large : pieces of the opercle all considerably developed, 

 but especially the subopercle, which is produced beyond the true opercle 

 in the form of a projecting lobe, having its descending margin sinuated, 

 and its surface elegantly marked with several diverging striae; true 

 opercle forming an equilateral triangle : head naked ; body covered with 

 minute scales : lateral line arising on each side of the nape, and running 

 parallel with the dorsal fin a very little below it ; marked by a series 

 of oblong slightly elevated tubercles : along the middle of each side a 

 second impressed line formed by the division of the muscles : dorsal com- 

 mencing at about, or a little beyond, one-fourth of the entire length, 

 exactly in a line with the extremities of the pectorals, and terminating 

 a little before the caudal ; height tolerably uniform throughout, equalling 

 not quite half the depth of the body ; rays very slender ; all simple, but 

 articulated: vent some little way beyond the middle of the entire length ; 

 anal commencing immediately behind it, similar to the dorsal, and ter- 

 minating in the same line with that fin : caudal forked for nearly half its 

 length ; the rays much branched, with the exception of the outermost 

 above and below : pectorals inserted just below the produced lobe of the 

 subopercle, and equalling one-third the entire length of the head ; fourth 

 and fifth rays longest; the middle ones branched; two or three of the 

 lateral ones above and below simple. 



B. 7 ; D. 58; A. 31 ; C. 15, and a few short ones ; P. 15. 



