PISCES. 81 



Ostracion L. Ten or twelve teeth in each jaw. Body trigonal 

 or tetragonal, loricate, with scute inflexible, continuous, composed 

 of hexagonal areolae, perforate by apertures for the soft tail, the 

 fins and the mouth. Branchial aperture linear. 



Coffer-fish. The species of this genus are not very numerous, and all 

 live in the tropical seas. 



Sp. Ostracion trigueter L., BLOCH Ichth. Tab. 130, fig. 3, GulsR. Iconogr., 

 Poiss., PL 66, fig. 3, Cuv. R. Ani., ed. ill, Poiss. PL 112, fig. 2 ; from the 

 West Indian sea ; Ostracion comutus L., BLOCH Ichth. Tab. 133, Faun. 

 Japon., Pise. Tab. 131, fig. 4, from the East Indies and Japan, &c. 



ORDER IX. Malacopterygii. 



Branchiae pectinate, with narrow laciniae. Supra-maxillary 

 bones not connate with intermaxillaries. Rays of fins articulate, 

 except sometimes the first ray of the pectoral fins or of the dorsal 



fin. 



Soft-finned. The rays of the fins are jointed and mostly split to- 

 wards the point. This order corresponds in great part with that of 

 the Cydolepidoti of AGASSIZ, since the scales are usually without 

 teeth at the posterior margin. Yet some of the Malacopterygii be- 

 long to the Ctenolepidoti of AGASSIZ, that is, they have toothed scales. 

 The divisions of MUELLER, which are founded upon the swimming- 

 bladder, we cannot here adopt, however highly we esteem the merits 

 of this author in the anatomy and systematic arrangement of fishes. 

 The presence of an air-tube or its absence and the consequent 

 closure of the swimming-bladder, cannot supply a primary character 

 for two divisions in which the swimming-bladder itself is often 

 absent. Therefore we leave the Physostomi and Anacanthini of 

 MUELLER in the same division together. 



I. Malacopterygii abdominales. Swimming-bladder in most, 

 Almost always furnished with an air-duct. Ventral fins situated 

 (in the abdomen behind the pectoral, in a few absent. 



We here join together the fishes usually regarded as Malacopterygii abdo- 

 minales, although some of them have no ventral fins at all (Pristigaster 

 Gnathobolus), whilst in others (Notopterus and Chirocentrus) they are very 

 smalL Similarly there are wingless insects amongst the Diptera, ffemi- 

 ptera, &c. 



Family XII. Siluroidei. Body covered with naked skin or 

 loricate with large osseous scutes. Margin of upper jaw formed by 



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