FISHES. 391 



possible; and that unions and definitions of species may not be 

 formed. 



Buffon was perfectly correct, when he stated that absolute charac- 

 ters, and well-defined separations between gonus do not always exist; 

 that there is no means without constraint of alienating them into our 

 methodical tables ; but this great man went too far, when he rejected 

 all resemblances, and refused all co-ordination of organization 

 deduced from such resemblances. 



These resemblances are so striking, and our mind is so strongly 

 biassed by them, that even the people have, at all times, had their 

 genera as well as the naturalists. 



We shall, therefore, bring together what nature has stamped with 

 resemblances, without forcing into our groups the beings which 

 nature has not placed amongst them ; not scrupling, after demon- 

 strating, for instance, all the species which may be classed under one 

 well-defined genus, all the genera of which it is possible to compose 

 a well circumscribed family, to leave out one or more isolated species, 

 one or more genera, which are not naturally connected with the 

 others ; preferring to acknowledge frankly these sorts of irregulari- 

 ties, if they can be so called, to leading into error, by leaving those 

 anomalous species and genera in series, the characters of which 

 would not embrace them. 



Our list of fishes, formed on those principles, may be distributed 

 into families nearly in the manner shown in the following table. 

 Not being able to assign to each family an univocal and exclusive 

 character, we confine ourselves for the present to indicating them by 

 names derived from the genus the most known in each, that which 

 may be regarded as the type, and from which it is most easy to form 

 an idea of it. 



At the head of each family will be found a more extensive enume- 

 ration of the characters and combinations according to which we 

 subdivide it, and which lead us to the different genera composing it. 



FISHES. 



OSSEOUS. 



With branchicB in the form of combs or lamina, 



WITH THE UPPER JAW FREE. 

 ACANTHOPTERYGIANS. 



Perches, 



Polynemes, 



Mullets, 



Mailed cheeks, 



Sciaenoids, 



Sparoids, 



Chetodons, 



Scomberoids, 



Sur Mullets, 



Labyrinth Gilled, 



Lophioides, 



Gobioides, 



Lnbroides. 



