NEEDLE GYMNOTE. 65 



fins, which are black and prominent, with the first 

 ray doubled by a small bone at the base : anal fin 

 beginning from the throat : fore part of the back 

 convex, with a soft, brown, fleshy process * behind 

 the middle, beyond which it is destitute of scales : 

 tail compressed, flat, with an ovate fin : from the 

 tip of the lower mandible to the middle of the back 

 runs a snow-white band. 



NEEDLE GYMNOTE. 



Gymnotus Acus. G. nudus, dorso ventre caudaque aptcrygiis, 

 pinna anali ante apicem caudce termmata radiis scxaginta. Lin. 

 Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 1140. 



Naked Gymnotus, with Unless tail and belly j the anal fin ter- 

 minating before it reaches the tip of the tail. 



THIS species is described by Brunnich, in his his- 

 tory of the fish of Marseilles. It is whitish, with 

 reddish and brown spots, which cause a kind of 

 clouded variegation on the back ; while a blueish 

 tinge prevails towards the under parts : on the back 

 is a kind of projection, which may be rather consi- 

 dered as a rudiment of a fin than a perfect one : the 



* This process, which is of considerable length, is, according 

 to the observations of the Count de Cepede, attached also at its 

 smaller or opposite extremity to the skin of the back, very near 

 to the origin of the tail : it is also connected throughout its whole 

 length by twelve short, oblique filaments, to the subjacent furrow 

 into which it is received. In the specimen described by Dr. 

 Pallas, it appears to have been imperfectj and is improperly called 

 Ji cirrus. 



v. iv. p. i. 5 



