476 FISHES. 



Gen. 1 11. TETRAGONURUS, Risso. 



Body elongated ; lower jaw elevated vertically, with a row of 

 pointed cutting teeth locking between those of the upper jaw ; 

 a small row of pointed teeth on each palatine and two on the 

 vomer ; two dorsal fins, and two projecting crests on each side 

 of the tail. 



T. Cttvieri, Risso. Blackish brown, and all the scales deeply striated 

 and dentated. 2 feet long. Mediterranean sea. Risso, pi. x. fig. 37. 



2. With distinct spines in place of the first dorsal fin. 

 Rhynchobdella, Schn. 



Gen. 112. MACROGNATHUS, Lacep. 



Body elongated, destitute of ventral fins ; dorsal spines nume- 

 rous, and two before the anal fins ; snout prolonged into a 

 flattened cartilaginous point, longer than the lower jaw ; se- 

 cond dorsal and anal opposite, distinct from the caudal fin. 



M. ocellatuSj Hamilton. (Ophidium aculeatum, Gmel.) Rufous 

 brown above, below silvery ; fourteen spines before the dorsal 

 fin, and at its base from three to seven ocellated spots with a yel- 

 low ring. 6 inches long. Fresh waters in India. Shaw, iv. 73. 



Gen. 113. MASTACEMBEUTS, Gronov. 

 Body elongated, destitute of ventral fins ; jaws nearly equal ; 



dorsal and anal fins almost united to the caudal. 

 M. halepensis, Cuv. (Rhynchobdella, Schn.) Gronov. Zooph. pi. 8. 



Gen. 114. GASTEROSTEUS, Lacep. Lin. 

 One dorsal fin, with free spines before ; ventral fins with one 

 strong spine, and destitute of other rays ; bones of the pel- 

 vis forming a shield pointed behind. 



G. aculeatus, Lin. Banstickle or Stickleback. Three spines on 

 the back ; lateral scales occupying almost all the breadth of the 

 sides ; colour of the back and sides olive green j belly white ; in 

 some the lower jaw and belly bright crimson. 2 inches long. 

 Inhabits streams in Europe. B Penn. Brit. Zool. iii. pi. 61. 



Tlie Stickleback is extremely common in the waters of Britain, but nowhere in 

 greater quantities than in the fens of Lincolnshire, and the rivers connected with 

 them. " At Spalding," says Pennant, " there are once in seven or eight years amaz- 

 ing shoals that appear in the Welland, and come up the river in the form of a vast 

 column. They are supposed to be the multitudes that have been washed out of the 

 fens by the floods of several years, and collected in some deep hole, till, overcharged 

 with numbers, they are periodically obliged to attempt a change of place. The quan- 

 tity ;<! so great that they are used to manure the land. A notion may be had of this 

 vast shoal by saying, that a man employed by the farmer to take them has got for a 

 considerable time four shillings a day by selling them at a halfpenny the bushel." 

 The G. pungitius is conjectured to be the young of this species. 



Gen. 115. SPTNACHIA, Cuv. Gasterosteus, Lin. 

 Body elongated ; lateral line broad, composed of bony plates, 



