ABDOMINAL MALACOPTERYGIANS. 187 



the Nile, the Senegal, and some rivers in Asia. Their flesh is indifferent 

 or bad. 



Some of them, the Macropteronotes, Lacep., Clarias, Gronov., 

 have but a single radiated dorsal. 



One of these, the Sharmuth, or Black-Fish, Silurus anguillaris, 

 Hasselq. and L., is common in Egypt and in Syria, constituting in 

 the latter a considerable article of food*. 

 Others have a radiated dorsal, and a second one that is adipose f. 



Plotosus, Lacep., 



Are characterized by a second radiated dorsal, which, as well as the anal, 

 is very long, both of them uniting at the caudal to form a point as in the 

 Eel; lips fleshy and pendent; the mouth armed in front with conical 

 teeth, behind which are globular ones, those of the upper jaw belonging 

 to the vomer ; the body and head enveloped by a thick naked skin ; nine 

 or ten rays in the branchial membrane. The species known are from the 

 East Indies. They have eight cirri; behind the anus and the fleshy and 

 conical tubercle common to all the Siluri, is another fleshy and ramified 

 appendage, whose functions must be very singular. 



Some of them have large and dentated dorsal and pectoral spines J. 



In others they are almost hidden under the skin§. 



Callichthys, Zm., in his first editions. — CataphractusjI, Lacep. 



Have the sides of the body almost entirely mailed in four ranges of scaly 

 plates, and also a compartment of these plates on the head ; but the end 

 of the snout is naked, as well as the inferior surface of the body ; a single 

 ray in the anterior edge of the second dorsal; the pectoral spine strong, 

 but the dorsal feeble or short. The mouth is but slightly cleft, and the 

 teeth are almost insensible ; four cirri ; eyes small and on the sides of the 

 head. These fishes can crawl about out of water for some time like the 

 Eel. 



The pectoral spine of some is simply rough ^ ; in others it is dentated 

 as in most of the Siluri**. The 



Malapterurus, Lacep., 



Are distinguished from all the true Siluri, by the absence of the radiated 

 fin on the back, by their having only a small adipose oOe on the tail, and 

 by the total deficiency of a spine in the pectorals, whose rays are entirely 

 soft. The head, as well as the body, is covered with a smooth skin ; the 



* Add, Macropi. magur, Buchan. XXVI, the same as the Silurus called anguillaris 

 by Pair. Russel, U^;—Sil. Batrachus, Bl. 370, 1, which may be the same as the 

 Macropteronote brun, Lac. V, ii, 2 ; — the Hexackcine, Id. lb. 3, has only six cirri, but 

 it rests merely on Chinese drawings. 



t The Hale {Heterobranchus bidorsalis), Geofl'. Eg. Poiss. du Nil, pi. xvi, f. 2. 



X Flatystacus anguillaris, Bl. 373, 1; Renard, I, fol. 3, f. 19. 



§ Plotosus ccBsius, Buchan. XV, 44. 



II N. B. Bloch, in his genus Cataphractus, includes Doras and Callichthys. 



if Silurus callichthys, Bl. 377, 1. 



•* A new species. 



