VOL. LXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 135 



scales, which are, as we shall hereafter explain, oblong, distinct, and disposed 

 without any regular order. This description was sufficient to ascertain, that the 

 difference between the figures arose from Rondeletius having drawn the scales 

 omitted by Bellonius : yet the authors who wrote immediately after Willoughby, 

 and particularly Ray in his Synopsis, follow Gesnerus, in maintaining two dif- 

 ferent species of cirrata ophidia, one with, the other without, spots. 



Artedi did not take notice of the spots ; he decribes the fish in a genus to 

 which he gives the name of ophidion, and places that genus among the Mala- 

 copterygii. After him Kleinius once more took notice of the spots ; but at the 

 same time introduced another confusion concerning this fish, arising from Ron- 

 deletius having said, that it has 2 cirri, while Willoughby asserts it has 4 ; but it 

 is easy to reconcile these authors ; for though the ophidium has only 2 cirri, yet 

 each of these being divided in 1, they appear as 4 ; so that Willoughby might 

 justly say, that it is quadri-cirratus. The same author places the ophidium in a 

 genus which he calls enchelyopus, which is indeed not a good family, since it 

 comprehends the genera of gymnotus, anarrhichas, cepola, blennius, cobitis, &c. 



Linne, in his description of the ophidium barbatum, says that its whole body 

 is covered with oblong spots, without any regular direction. Dr. Gouan, in his 

 description of the genus of the ophidium, does not mention the scales ; but 

 gives the spots as a generic character. The last author who has mentioned these 

 spots, and given a description of this fish, is Mr. Brunniche in his Ichthyologia 

 Massiliensis. The genus of ophidium has the following principal characters, 

 viz. the body long ; the fins of the back, tail, and anus, confounded in one ; no 

 fin on the under part of the body ; and the eyes covered by the common skin. 



Abridged Description of Ophidium Barbatum. — Head compressed, sub-acute, naked, loosely 

 covered by the common skin. 



Gape wide ; upper mandible doubled, and rather longer than the lower : lips skinny, thin. 



Teeth, on the margin of both jaws, disposed into a narrow area, wider in front ; minute, sharp, 

 thick set, the anterior ones rather larger. 



Tongue sub-obtuse, smooth. 



Palate smooth in the middle, but in front roughened by three areoe of teeth ; the two lateral areae 

 of a linear, and die middle of a sub-triangular, form. 



Eyes large, near each other ; situated on the upper part of the head, covered by the common 

 skin ; iris silvery, pupil yellowish. 



Cirri or beards two, at the tip of the lower jaw, bipartite, one part longer than the other. Before 

 the eyes a covered, recumbent, bony tubercle. 



Body compressed, attenuated towards the tail. 



Lateral line high, smooth, parallel with the back, adorned beneath with a silvery line. 



Scales obovate, covered, umbonated, separate. 



Colour of the head and body silvery flesh-colour. 



Dorsal Jin long, longer but narrower than the anal fin, continued into the tail-fin, dingy white 

 at the base, but black at the margin, owing to numerous black points. 



Pectorutjins obovate, pellucid, the membrane freckled or marked by extremely minute spots. 



