140 FiSHKS. 



Several species are found in the European seas which differ in the num- 

 ber of their dorsal rays, and which, when entire, that is when young, fre- 

 quently present a most singular appearance from the prolongation of their 

 fins. 



The most brilliant of the Mediterranean species has but from one 

 hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty dorsal rays : all that have 

 been caught were either small or of a middling size. Another has 

 from a hundred and seventy to a hundred and seventy-five rays, spe- 

 cimens of which are found in cabinets, from four to five feet in length. 

 A third has more than two hundred of these rays, and is more than 

 seven feet in length. 



The Arctic Ocean produces two species, called in Norway the 

 King of the Herrings*; to one of which some give one hundred 

 and twenty rays, and others give one hundred and sixty, and say 

 that it attains the length of ten feet; the other has more than four 

 hundred rays, and is eighteen feet in length -j-. The ventrals consist 

 of a long filament dilated near the extremity. They are also found 

 in India :}:. 



Stylephorus, Shaw. 



A vertical caudal, as in Gymnetrus, but shorter; the extremity of the 

 tail, instead of being curved into a small hook, is prolonged into a slender 

 cord longer than the body. 



S. chordattis, Shaw, Lin. Trans. I, vi, Nat. Misc. VII, pi. 274, 

 and Gen. Zool. IV, part I, pi. ii. There is only known a badly 

 preserved specimen, which was taken in the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 even of it, for a long time, we only had quite a mutilated drawing. 

 M. de Blainville, however, has given us a more faithful representa- 

 tion; Journ. de Phys. tome LXXXVII, pi. i, f. 1, which exhibits 

 no ventrals. 



In a third tribe the snout is short, and the mouth cleft obliquely. 



Cepola§, Lin. 



The Ribband Fishes have a long dorsal and anal, both reaching to the 

 base of the caudal, Avhich is tolerably large ; the cranium is not at all ele- 

 vated; snout very short; lower jaw curved upwards ; the teeth prominent, 

 and the ventrals sufficiently developed. There are but two or three non- 

 articulated rays in the dorsal, which are as flexible as the others; the 



* It is the RegaUcus glesne, Ascanius, Ic. Fasc. II, pi. xi, which he afterwards 

 named Ophidium glesne, Mem. Scient. Soc. Copenh. Ill, p. 419, or the Regalicus 

 remipes, Brunnich, lb. pi. B, f. 4 and 5 Bloch, Syst. pi. 88, copies and alters the 

 figure of Ascanius. A better copy is, Encycl. Method, f. 358. 



f Gymnetrus GriUi, Lindroth, New Stockh. Mem. XIX, pi. viii. 



X Gymnetrus Russelii, Shaw, IV, part II, page 195, pi. 28. 



Add, the Gymnetrus Hawhenii, if the figure be correct; but the Regalec Utnceole, or 

 Ophidic chinoise, Lacep. I, xxii, 3, or the Gymnetrus cepedianus, Shaw, does not be- 

 long to this genus. 



§ This name of Cepola, given by Willoughby as a Roman synonyme of the 

 Fierasfer, has been applied by Linn, to the present genus, to which the Fieraafer does 

 not belong. 



