IGO nsiirs. 



sected present a stomach resembling an oblong sac, and sliort intestines, 

 but there is no caecum. Tlie fore-part of tlie natatory bladder is deeply 

 liifurcatcd. They keep thcmyelves hidden in the sand, to surprise tlu-ir 

 prey, like the Lophius, Sec. ; the wounds inflicted by their spines are re • 

 ])Uted dangerous. They are found in both oceans. 



Some of them have a smooth and fungous skin, and a cutaneous ap- 

 pendage over the eye*. 



Others are covered with scales, and have no appendage over the eye"]-. 



AVe might distinguish those in which the scales and cirri are wanting, 

 but which have lines of pores pierced in the skin;};, and hooked teeth iu 

 the lower jaw. 



The fourteenth familj of the Acanthopterygians, or that of 



FAMILY XIV. 



LABROIDES, 



Is easily recognized; the body is oblong and scaly; a single dorsal is 

 supported in front by spines, each of which is generally furnished with a 

 membranous appendage ; the jaws are covered with fleshy lips ; there are 

 three pharyngeals, two upper ones attached to the cranium, and a large 

 lower one, all three armed with teeth, now as if paved, and then pointed 

 or laminiform, but generally stronger than usual; an intestinal canal 

 either without caeca, or with two very small ones, and a strong natatory 

 bladder. 



Labrus, Lin., 



Form a very numerous genus of fishes, which strongly resemble each 

 other in their oblong form; their double fleshy lips, from which they de- 

 rive their name, one adhering immediately to the jaws, and the other to 

 the suborbitals; their crowded branchiae with five rays; their conical 

 maxillary teeth, the middle and anterior of which are the longest, and 

 their cylindrical and blunt pharyngeal teeth arranged as if paved, the up- 

 per ones on two large plates, the lower on a single one which corresponds 

 to the two others. Their stomach does not form a cul-de-sac, but is con- 

 tinuous with an intestine without caeca, which, after two inflexions, termi- 

 nates in a large rectum. They have a single and strong natatory bladder. 



* Bair. tau (Gadus tati, L.), or Lophiiif hnf-^, Mitch., or Batrachoide verneul, Le- 

 sueur, Mem. Mus. V, xvii; — Batr. vurie, Id. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil.; — Batr. grunnitns, 

 (Colitis grutmiens, L.), Bl. 179, Seb. Ill,xxiii, 4; — Hair. gange7ie, Buch. XIV, 8; — 

 Balr. duhius, Cuv., or L. dtihitt.i, J. White, 2G5, Nieuhof, Ap., Will. Ap. IV. 1;— 

 Biilr. A-spinis. Cuv., or Balr. diemevsis, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 



•f- Balr. surinamensis, Bl. Schn. pi. vii, given as the Tau, Laccp. II, xii, 1; — B. 

 covsp'icillum, Cuv., or the pretended Balr. Ian, Bl. ])1. l.cvii, f. 2 and 3. 



X Balr. puro.iissimus, Cuv., Niqiti, Marcgr. 178, or the second N/qiii of Pison, 295. 

 N. B. The first Niqui of Pison, 294, is a badly copied figure from the collection 

 called Mentzel's, to which the engraver has added scales. 



