206 FISHES. 



among the anterior ones there are some larger than the others. Each of 

 the palatines is provided with a plate of small and crowded teeth, and 

 there are but five broad rays in the branchiae. The head is round, obtuse, 

 furnished with hard bones, and without scales. Indurated suborbitals 

 cover the whole cheek. The body is oblong, slightly compressed, and 

 covered with broad scales, like that of the Carp ; the dorsal is opposite to 

 the veiitrals; the stomach is a wide sac, and there are numerous small 

 cyeca. The natatory bladder is very large. 



They inhabit the rivers of hot climates, and their flesh is of an agree- 

 able flavour*. 



Amia, Lin. 



The Amise are closely related to the Erythrins in their jaws, teetii, and 

 head, which latter is covered with hard and bony plates, in their large 

 scales, and in the flat rays of their branchis ; but there are twelve of these 

 rays. Between the branches of their lower jaw is a sort of osseous buck- 

 ler, the rudiment of which is visible in Megalops and Elops; behind their 

 conical teeth are others resembling small paving-stones, and their dorsal, 

 which commences between the pectorals and ventrals, extends closely to tlie 

 caudal. The anal, on the contrary, is short. Each nostril is provided 

 with a little tubular appendage. The stomach is ample and fleshy, the 

 intestine wide, strong, and without caeca, and, what is very remarkable, 

 the natatory bladder is cellular, like the lung of a reptile. 



A. calva, L. ; BL, Schn. 80f. The only species known; it is 



found in the rivers of Carolina, where it feeds on crabs. It is rarely 



eaten. 



SuDisi, O/y. 



The Vastres are also fresh-water fishes, which have all the characters of 

 an Erythrinus, except that their dorsal and anal, placed opposite to each 

 other, and of about an equal size, occupy the last third of the total length 

 of the body. 



There is one species with a very short snout, Sudis Adansonii, 

 Cuv., brought from the Senegal by Adanson, and which was also 

 found in the Nile by M. Ruppel; and another, S. gigas, Cuv., S. pi- 

 rarucu Spix, XVI, of a very great size, with an oblong snout, large 

 bony scales, and singularly rough head, from Brazil. A third, S. 

 niloticus, Ehr., discovered by M. Ehrenberg in the Nile, has a sin- 

 gular spinal tube, which adheres to the third branchiae, perhaps some- 



♦ Esox malabaricus, BL 392; — Synodus er;ithrinus, Bl., Schn. Gron., Mus. VII, vi; 

 — Syn. lareira, BL, Schn., pL 79, Marcgi-. 157; Sy7i. palustris, BL, Schn., maturaque, 

 Marcgr. 169; — Erythrinus taeniatus, Spix, XIX; probably also the Esox gyinnocepha- 

 lus. L. 



N. B. The Syuorlus vitlpes, only known from Catesby, II, xxx, which appears to 

 me to be the same as the But. banane, and as the Synodus synodus, Schn., only known 

 by a fig. of Gronovius, Zooph., and Mus. VIII, 2, is a Salmo saurus, wliich had lost 

 its second dorsaL The Esox synodus, L., so far as we can judge from the short de- 

 scription, is different. 



f N. B. The /tmia immactdata, Schn. 451, or the Macabi, Parra, XXXV, 1, 3, 5, 

 is nothing more than the Butirin banane. 



X Sudis, a name employed by Pliny as synonymous with Sphyrana. 



