PISCES. 189 



B. Fingers two. Mouth and palate edentulous. 



Peristedion LAC. Snout furcate, elongate. Body mailed with 

 large, bony, keeled scales. Several branched cirri at the lower jaw. 



Sp. Trigla cataphracta L., EONDELET de Piscib. p. 299 (Cornuta sive lyra 

 altera), Cuv. R. Ani., 3d. ill., PL -20. fig. 3, from the Mediterranean Sea. 

 A figure of the cranium in EOSENTHAL Ichthyotom. Taf. xviu. fig. 4. 

 A species also from Japan is known, Peristedion orientale SCHL. Faun. 

 Japon. ; and a few years ago the Rijks-Museum received one from the Indian 

 Sea, at the Moluccas, through the deceased FORSTEN (Peristedion laticeps, 

 n. sp.) 



Oreosoma Cuv. Body compressed, high, scaleless, furnished 

 with conical tubercles on the back and at the belly. Mouth verti- 

 cal; teeth small, thin, crowded in jaws, vomer and palate-bones. 

 Branchiostegous membrane with seven rays. 



Only one species of this anomalous genus is known, Oreosoma coniferum (or 

 atlanticum) Cuv., a small fish, discovered by PERON; GUERIN Iconogr., 

 Poiss. PL 16, fig. 3, Cuv. R. Ani., ed. UL, Poiss. PL 26, fig. 4. 



Family XLIV. Percoidei. Body oblong, covered with rough 

 scales (ctenoid). Prasoperculum or operculum rough with teeth or 

 spines. Teeth in jaws and vomer, often also in palate-bones. 

 Branchiostegous membrane mostly with seven rays. Ventral fins 

 thoracic in most. 



Percdid fishes. This large family contains principally the different 

 sub-divisions which modern writers have adopted in the large genus 

 Perca of LIXN^EUS, to which are added some smaller genera of the 

 great Swedish naturalist, Uranoscopus, Trachinus, Polymmus and 

 Mullus. The most aberrant is the last-named genus, which we 

 therefore place in a division distinct from the rest; it has some 

 conformity with the Sparoi'ds. 



Section I. Mullini. Two cirri in lower jaw. Branchiostegous 

 membrane with four rays. 



Mullus L. Head compressed, scaly. Eyes large at the top of 

 head, remote from mouth. Body covered with large, deciduous 

 scales. Ventral fins thoracic. 



Upeneus Cuv. Teeth in both jaws. 



Note. All the species of Upeneus are extra- European marine fishes. 

 BLEEKER distinguishes the sections of this genus of CUVIER as sub-genera ; 



