ACANTHOPTERYGIANS. 139 



ventrals and caudal are wanting, and tlie tail is drawn out into a long, 

 slender, and compressed filament. In lieu of the anal there is merely a 

 suite of small and hardly perceptible spines on the under edge of the tail; 

 the branchia; have but seven rays. They reseml)le beautiful silver rib- 

 bands; their stomach is elongated and thick; their intestines straight; their 

 caeca numerous, and tlieir natatory bladder long and simple. 



Trich. lepturvs, Lin.; Brown, Jam. pi. xlv, f. 4*, is found in the 



Atlantic, both on the coast of America and that of Africa. 



Two other species are known from the Indian Ocean, one of 



which, Trich. haumela, Schn.; Chpea haumcla, Forsk. and Gmel. ; 



Savala, Russel, I, 41, is very similar to the Lepturus, being only 



somewhat shorter. The other, 2'rich. savala, Cuv., is still less 



elongated, and has a smaller eyef . 



A second tribe comprehends genera in which the mouth is small, and 

 but slightly cleft. 



Gymnetrus, Bl., 



Have the body elongated and flat, as in all the preceding divisions, and 

 totally deprived of the anal fin; but there is a long dorsal whose length- 

 ened anterior rays form a sort of panache, but they are easily broken; 

 the ventrals, when not worn or broken, are very long, and tlie caudal, 

 composed of very few rays, rises vertically from the extremity of the tail, 

 which ends in a small hook. There are six rays in the branchiae; the 

 mouth is slightly cleft, very protractile, and furnished with but few and 

 small teeth; some small spines on the lateral line, which are more salient 

 towards the tail. These fishes are extremely soft, and their rays are fra- 

 gile ; they have been frequently and incorrectly figured from mutilated 

 specimens:!:; their skeleton has the bones, especially those of the vertebra-, 

 but very slightly indurated, their stomach is elongated, and their caeca are 

 very numerous ; the natatory bladder is wanting, and their mucous flesh 

 is very rapidly decomposed. 



* It is the Ubirre of Laet., Ind. Occid. 573, which, through a mistake, pointed 

 out by himself, he has placed in Marcgr. p. 161, as belonging to the description of the 

 Much, which is a MurEena; this mistake has produced such confusion, that Bloch and 

 others were led to believe that the Trichiurus is a iVesh-water fish. 



I A transposition in the text of Nieuhof has caused electric properties to be attri- 

 buted to the Trichiuri of India, which they most assuredly do not possess. 



X The FaLv venetornm of Belon, of which Gouan has made his genus Trachyp- 

 TERUS, and which has become the Ctpola irachyptera, Gmel., only differs from the 

 Tavia altera of Rondel, 327, and even from his Tania prima, which is the Cepola 

 tania, L., and from the Spada maxima, Imperati, 587, or Cepola gladius of Walbaum, 

 and from the Tcenia falcata, Aldrov., av Cepola iris of Walbaum, in the various de- 

 grees 'of individual mutilation. It is the same with respect to the Vogmar of the Ice- 

 landers of Olafsen and Powelsen, Isl. tr. fr. pi. li, or Gymnogasier arclicus of Brun- 

 nich, Scient. Soc. Copenh. Ill, pi xiii, which is the genus Bogmarus, Bl. Schn.; 

 with respect to the Oymnelre cepedien, Risso, Ed. I, pi. v, f. 17; to the Argyctius 

 quadrimaculatus, Rafm. Caratt. I, f. 3; to his Scarcina quadrimaculala and imperialis; 

 to the Gymnetriis mediterraneus of Otto; to the Epidesmus maculatus of Ranzani, 

 Opusc. Scientif. Fascic. VIII, and to the Kegalecas maculatus of Nardo, Phys. Journ. 

 Favia, VIII, pi. i, f. 1. All these fishes hardly difl'er in species, and not in the least 

 as to genus. Bonnelli is the person who has described the least mutilated specimen: 

 he calls it the Trachyplerus cristatus, Acad. Turin, XXlV, pi. ix. 



