gQ SLENDER FISTULARIA. 



of an eel, and of a liver-colour, marked both above 

 and on each side by a row of blue spots, with 

 greenish ones intermixed. Marcgrave adds that it 

 is an edible fish, though of no particular delicacy. 

 Dr. Bloch observes that both the jaws are in reality 

 beset with minute teeth ; that the tongue is smooth 

 and loose ; the body flattened in front but rounded 

 on the back, the lateral line strait, the abdomen 

 silvery, and the fins of a pale red. The appearance 

 of the tail is highly singular, being pretty deeply 

 forked, as in the generality of fishes, while from the 

 middle of the furcature springs a very long and 

 thickish bristle or process, of a substance resembling 

 that of whalebone, and gradually tapering to a fine 

 point. A variety has been observed by Dr. Bloch, 

 in which this part was double, and the snout ser- 

 rated on each side. This variety, or perhaps sexual 

 difference, appears from the observations of Com- 

 merson, detailed by Cepede, to be of a brown colour 

 above, and silvery beneath, but without the blue 

 spots so remarkable on the smooth-snouted kind. 

 The Count de Cepede informs us also that the 

 spine of this fish is of a very peculiar structure; the 

 first vertebra being of immoderate length, the three 

 next much shorter, and the rest gradually decreas- 

 ing as they approach the tail : he adds that there 

 are no visible ribs. 



Dr. Bloch's highly accurate and beautiful figure 

 of this curious fish is repeated in the present work, 

 together with a representation of the remarkable 

 variety above-mentioned, in which the tail-process 

 is double and the snout serrated. 



