SUBBRACIIIAN MALACOPTERYGIANS. 219 



Cycl. liparis, L. ; Bl. 123, 3, 4. Inhabits the coast of France*. 



The genus, of which we are about to speak, may, like the Pleuro- 

 nectes, be constructed into a particular family of Subbrachian Malacopte- 

 rygians. 



EcHENEis(a), Lin., 



Are remarkable, above all fishes, for a flattened disk placed upon their 

 head, composed of a certain number of transverse, cartilaginous lamina, 

 directed obliquely backwards, dentated or spiny on their posterior edge, 

 and moveable, so that by creating a vacuum between them, or by hooking 

 on to various bodies, such as rocks, ships, tislies, &c., by means of the 

 spines, they are enabled to attach themselves firmly thereto, a circum- 

 stance which gave rise to the fabulous saying, that the Remora possessed 

 the power of suddenly stopping a vessel in the middle of its swiftest 

 course. 



Their body is elongated and covered with small scales; there is a small 

 soft dorsal opposite to the anal; the top of the head is perfectly flat; the 

 eyes are on the side; the mouth cleft horizontally and rounded; the 

 lower jaw projects beyond the other, and is furnished, as are the inter- 

 maxillaries, with small teeth resembling those of a card ; a very regular range 

 of delicate teeth, that may be compared to cilia, runs along the edge of 

 the maxillaries, which form the external border of the upper jaw; the 

 anterior edge of the vomer is furnished with a band of teeth like those of 

 a card, and its whole surface, which is wide, as well as the tongue, is very 

 rough. They have eight branchiostegal rays; their stomach is a wide 

 cul-de-sac; they have six or eight caeca, but no natatory bladder; their 

 intestine is ample but short. 



The species are not numerous ; the most common one that inha- 

 bits the Mediterranean, Echen. remora, L., Bl. 172, well known 

 by the name of Remora, is the shortest, and has but eighteen lamina 

 in its disk. Another and longer species, Ech. naucratus, L., (the 

 Indian Remora), Bl. 171, has twenty-two: and the third, the long- 

 est of all, Ech. lineata, Schn., Linn. Trans, pi. 17, has but ten. 



We have discovered a species, Ech. osteochir, Cuv., whose pec- 

 toral rays are osseous, compressed, and terminated by a slightly cre- 

 nated palette. 



* It is the same as the Gobio'ide smyrneeii, Lacep., Nov. Com. Petrop. IX, pi. ix, 

 f. 4 and 6, and probably as the Cyclop, souris, Lacep. IV, xv, 3, and perhaps as the 

 pretended Gobius, Dan. Zool. CXXXIV; — Add, Cyclop, monlagid, Wern. Soc. 1, v, 

 1 ; — Cyclop, gelatinosus, Fall, Spie. VII, iii, 1 ; — Gobius, Dan. Zool. CLIV, A. 



|^p° (a) Eclieneis is a Latin -word used by Pliny for a small fish, that, sticking to 

 the keel of a ship, was supposed to stop its course. The Romans attributed to this 

 animal the loss of the ejreat battle of Actium by Anthony, whose ship it delayed. 

 Lucan's line, in reference to the event, is, 



"Puppim retinet in mediis cchencis aquis." — Eng. Ed. 



