118 



CLASS P I S C E S. 



ORDER- H E T K O-M A L ACOP T E R Y G I A. 



The Dorsal Fin. 



4. Tench; 5. Cirrhines; 6. Breams; 7. Labeons ; 8. White Fish; and 

 9. Gonorhvnques. 



The Carp (C. Carpio), a species of the first subgenus, is figured on 

 Plate 6. This fish is of a thick shape ; it is of an olive-green colour above, 

 and golden beneath ; the lips thick ; the angles 

 of the upper jaw are furnished with two beards 

 on each side, of which the lower are the 

 shorter ; the dorsal fin extends far towards the 

 tail, which is slightly bifurcated ; the scales are 

 very large. The Carp sometimes weighs as 

 much as twenty pounds, and reaches from four to five feet in length. It is 

 extremely tenacious of life, even when taken from the water. 



COBITIS Loach. There are but three species in this genus, and they 

 are all fresh-water fish ; they are the Groundling (C. Barbatula) ; the Spiny 

 Loach (C. Taaiia) ; and the Great or Muddy Loach (C. Fossilis), figured on 

 Plate 6. 



ANABLEPS. Head flat ; snout blunt ; mouth wide, armed with small teeth ; 

 body cylindrical, and covered with strong scales ; gill-rays five ; no peduncle 

 to the intermaxillaries, which are suspended to the nasal bones ; pectorals 

 in part scaly ; dorsal small, and near the tail ; air-bladder large ; intestine 

 wide, without caxa. 



The species Four-eyed (A. Tetrophthalmus), which inhabits the rivers 

 of Guiana, is the only species known. The cornea and iris are divided by 

 transverse bands, which give the animal the appearance of having four eyes, 

 whereas it has, in reality, only two. The two openings referred to above 

 affect not the singleness of the eye in this animal. The female produces her 

 young alive, and in an advanced state. 



Other genera of this family : Cyprinodon ; Poecilia. 



Esox Pike. ThePtke or Pickerel (E. Lucius), when in condition, is 

 of a green colour, spotted with bright yellow, and the gills of a bright 



red ; but when out of season, the green 

 becomes grey, and the yellow spots 

 paler. It sometimes acquires the 

 length of eight feet in Lapland, but 

 the largest ever caught in England 

 weighed thirty-five pounds. The pike is extremely voracious, and may be 

 consided as the fresh-water Shark. They are often known to be destroyed 

 by attempting to gorge one of their own species larger than their swallow 

 will admit ; and Mr. Plott, of Oxford, has appended a note to Plott's 

 " History of Staffordshire," in which it is related, that a Swan, whilst feeding 

 under water, had her head gorged by a pike, and both were destroyed. It 

 appears to be as terrific to the small fish as the Hawk or Owl is to birds, 

 and when asleep the lesser fish may be seen swimming round them in 

 great numbers, and with much anxiety. Pikes live to a very great age : 

 Rzaczynski, in his " Natural History of Poland," mentions one of ninety years 

 old ; but this is far exceeded by Gesner's account of a Pike taken near 

 Hailbrun, in Suabia, in the year 1497, which bore a ring with a Greek 

 inscription to the following purport, " I am the fish which was first of all 

 put into this lake by the hands of the governor of the universe, Frederick 

 (Barbarossa) the Second, the 5th of October 1230." Its skeleton was 

 kept for many years at Mannheim. Pikes spawn in March or April. They 

 are used for the table, and by some persons considered good eating. They 

 are common in most of the European lakes, and in the north of Persia, 

 but the largest are taken in Lapland. 



EXOCXETUS Flying Fish. The fish belonging to this genus have the 

 power of supporting themselves upon their pectoral fins, in a flight out of 

 water, more completely than the Gurnards and others. Pursued by the 

 Corypheni and other voracious fishes, the defenceless Flying Fish ia com- 

 pelled to quit its native element, whence it has no sooner emerged than 

 fresh dangers await it from the ravenous Gulls and Frigate Birds, which 

 are attracted to their prey by the shining hue of their victim glittering 

 beneath the surface of the sea ; so that it may be truly said, in avoiding 

 Scylla the poor little wreteh falls into Charybdis. The Flying Fish is 



The Pike. 



not able to support itself long out of water, as the air soon dries its fins, 

 and it is again compelled to seek its native element, where its insatiate 

 enemy is ready to seize it, as soon as it descends. 



Four species are described, one of which, the E. Exiliens. is figured on 

 Plate 6. 



Other genera of this family : Mormyrus ; Salanx. 



SILURUS. The fishes composing this genus are found principally in Asia, 

 Africa, and America, living in ponds, tanks, and rivers. Northern Europe 

 produces but one species, and it is curious that they are not found either in 

 England or Jamaica. They are slow-moving fish, are predaceous, and do 

 not hunt, but lie in ambush for their prey, hidden either in the mud, or in 

 their holes, and playing the barbules on their heads till unwary fish come 

 within their reach, when they spring upon them. Their large, rounded 

 head is supposed to give them the appearance of Whales, and hence some 

 of them have been called River Whales. This resemblance is so great in 

 the American species, that Agassiz has thought proper to form them into a 

 new genus, by the name of Cetopsis. 



The Sheet Fish, or Sly Silurus (S. Glanis), is the largest of the fresh- 

 water fishes of Europe, sometimes attaining the length of six feet, or even 

 more, and weighing as much as three hundred pounds : head shovel-shaped, 

 and of a deep green colour, having six barbules ; mouth very large, lower 

 jaw projects beyond the upper ; nostrils round, situated between the two 

 long barbules, and behind them are the eyes, small, and having the pupils 

 black, and the irides white ; the body is thick and long ; the back and 

 sides above the lateral line greenish-black, and below it pale green, the 

 whole body studded with irregular blackish spots ; belly yellowish-white ; 

 the dorsal fin has five rays, is of a yellowish colour, with a blue tip, so also 

 are marked the ventral fins, which have thirteen rays ; pectoral fins fur- 

 nished with eighteen rays, at their base and tips bluish, and in the middle 

 yellow ; their first ray is strong, bony, and denticulated within ; anal fin 

 supported by fifty rays, yellowish-grey at the base, and tipped with violet, 

 as is also the caudal fin. This fish is found in all quarters of the globe, 

 most commonly in fresh, and but rarely in salt water. 



PIMELODES. These were removed by Lacepede from the genus Silurus ; 

 and from the great variety they exhibit are very difficult to arrange under 

 any one genus. Cuvier has divided them into four subdivisions ; viz., Bagres, 

 True Pimelodes, Synodons, and Ageneioses. 



The species P. Cyclopum (Plate 6) is found generally about four inches 

 long, but some varieties do not exceed two inches ; the body is depre>-e<l, 

 of an olive colour, and marked with little black spots ; mouth at the extre- 

 mity of the muzzle, very wide, and furnished with only two beards attached 

 to the jaws ; eyes very small, and placed in the middle of the head ; skin 

 of the body and tail copiously besmeared with mucus. It is found in lakes 

 seventeen hundred toises above the level of the sea, in the kingdom of 

 Quito, and is the only fish there found above fourteen hundred toises. It 

 is called Prenaditta by the natives, and is remarkable for being continually 

 ejected from the craters and clefts of the volcanoes of Imbaburu, Sangay, 

 Cotopaxi, Tungaragua, and Cargueirazo. 



LORICAEIA. These fish are natives of South America. 



Other genera of this family : Aspredo ; Malapterus. 



The latter fish can communicate an electric shock like the Torpedo and 

 Gymnotus. It is found in the Nile, and in the rivers of Central Africa. 



MaUplerus. 



