688 



S I L U R U S. 



they have a considerable degree of motion. It is 

 understood that these barbules are made use of as 

 baits, or rather as lines for the fish, and that the 

 points of them moving about in the water, while the 

 fish is either covered with mud, or undistinguishable 

 from it in consequence of its dull colours, is quite 

 unobserved, until the prey is within reach of its great 

 mouth, which is semicircular, and opens upwards 

 rather than otherwise, the under jaw being a little 

 longer than the upper one. The Silures are so large 

 and powerful, that they have little danger to fear 

 from any other inhabitant of the waters ; and some 

 of them, besides having a mouth sufficiently capacious 

 for swallowing any ordinary fish, have a very formi- 

 dable spine in the front of the dorsal fin, with which, 

 as it is ragged and toothed in the sides, they can 

 inflict very serious and even dangerous wounds. 



The characters of the family are : the skin of the 

 body covered with a slimy secretion, and without 

 any true scales, though some of them have it covered 

 with large bony plates ; their intermaxillary bones 

 are suspended under the ethmoid, and form the edge 

 of the upper jaw ; and the maxillaries are only rudi- 

 mental,or produced to support those barbules of which 

 mention has already been made ; the intestinal canal 

 is large, with many flexures, but without any caecal 

 appendages ; the swimming-bladder is large, heart- 

 shaped, and supported by peculiar bones ; very 

 generally the dorsal and the pectoral fins have a 

 strong articulated spine for their first rays, and not 

 unfrequently there arises behind the dorsal a second 

 one, of an adipose or fatty consistency, as in the salmon 

 family. 



Taken as a family, the Siluridcs are exceedingly 

 numerous, and varied in their characters. Cuvier 

 divides them into four principal genera, Silurus, 

 Malfeptcrurus, Aspredo, and Loricaria, and of these, 

 especially the first, there are very many subdivisions. 

 It would far exceed our limits to enter into the 

 details of them, and for popular purposes this is not 

 necessary, inasmuch as their history is exceedingly 

 obscure, and they have no interest whatever to the 

 English reader. We shall therefore only mention a 

 very few particulars respecting the species found _in 

 Europe, and give simply the generic distinctions of 

 the others. 



SILURUS. The fishes of this genus are exceedingly 

 numerous, and require subdivision into many smaller 

 sections. Their general characters are : the body 

 clammy and without any scales ; the mouth is at 

 the extremity of the muzzle, or a very little turned 

 upwards, and in the greater number of the subgenera 

 there is a very strong spine answering to the first ray 

 of the dorsal fin. This spine is articulated upon the 

 bones of the shoulder in such a manner as to be 

 moveable not only in the direction of the mesial 

 plane of the fish, but also laterally. This spine is a 

 very formidable weapon. In a large fish it is of 

 considerable size, and the sides of it are ragged with 

 teeth, so that it tears and lacerates in the most pain- 

 ful manner. As is the case with the spines on the 

 bodies of many fish, it is often supposed to be impreg- 

 nated with a poison ; but there is no reason to 

 believe so ; for the mechanical injury which it is 

 capable of inflicting is serious enough, and there is no 

 doubt that it is quite competent to occasion lock 

 jaw in those who have the misfortune to be wounded 

 by it. It may not be useless to the public to mention, 

 that, in the translation of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, 



purporting to be done by " EDWARD GRIFFITH, F.R.S., 

 ., AND OTHERS," there is a very curious "doing 

 into English " of the original text of that most observ- 

 ant and accurate Frenchman. Cuvier says, " et il y 

 a tres souvent en arriere une adipeuse comme dans 

 les saurnons," which the learned persons have ren- 

 dered, " and there are often three more behind an 

 adipose, as in the salrnones." This translation, which 

 repays the French rendering of" Love's last Shift," by 

 "La derniereChemise|der Amour," oranyotherthat has 

 been or can be done or imagined, shows pretty clearly 

 how large a licence may be taken by any man who 

 can, by hook or crook, contrive to 



" Shine in the dignity of F.R.S. ;" 



for, assuredly, if any mere mortal, unprotected by 

 the coat of darkness which these mystic letters are 

 supposed to wrap round their possessor, had dared 

 thus to translate Cuvier, the naturalists and the critics 

 would have been down upon him en masse, scalpel 

 and scalping-knife. Such, however, is the fact, as 

 any one may see by turning to p. 399 of the account 

 of fish ; and it is pretty clear that the parties, that is, 

 the F.R.S. and others, must have become Hoinerised 

 on the occasion, and " nodding at their duty." In the 

 preceding part of the sentence Cuvier is speaking of 

 the dorsal spine and the spines of the pectorals ; and 

 no person upon earth who should happen to read the 

 translation, without having seen the original, could 

 avoid concluding that the fishes have three spines 

 more behind an adipose, though an adipose what is 

 not said. What Cuvier does say is not that there are 

 three spines in addition to the dorsal and pectoral 

 ones behind an adipose, or behind any thing else ; 

 he merely says that there is very often an adipose 

 dorsal-fin behind the rayed dorsal, as is the case in 

 the salmon family, not the " salmones," which are 

 fishes quite unknown to British ichthyologists, or 

 even mentioned in Mr. Yarrell's work, minute and 

 perfect as that work is. They have the head flat- 

 tened, and the intermaxillary bones suspended under 

 the ethmoid, and not protractile. The maxillary 

 bones are very small, and in almost every one they 

 terminate in fleshy barbules, more or less elongated ; 

 and there are other barbules, sometimes attached to 

 the under jaw and sometimes to the nostrils. They 

 have a gill-lid, but no gill-flap, from which it is infer- 

 red that they have but a limited respiration, and such 

 a respiration accords with their sluggish habits, and 

 their lurking at the bottoms of the rivers. Their air- 

 bladder is very strong and heart-shaped, and the pos- 

 session of such an organ by fishes that very seldom 

 quit the bottom of the water is a proof that the com 

 mon supposition, that it is useful in changing the 

 specific gravity of the fish, is by no means well 

 founded. The stomach is a simple cul-de-sac, and 

 the intestine, though long, is without caecal appen- 

 dages. The rivers of the warm countries are theii 

 principal habitats. Though they are in genera' 

 feeders upon animal matters, they are not exclusively 

 confined to these, for they are understood to eat boti: 

 the succulent roots and the seeds of plants, the lattei 

 of which have been often found in their stomachs 

 It is to be regretted that so little is known of theii 

 habits and their use in the economy of nature, a; 

 there is no doubt that, from their numbers, their size 

 and the places in which they are found, the pan 

 which they perform must be an important one. Thej 

 are fishes of the beds of the rivers, only found ii 



