ACANTHOPTERYGII. 211 



FAMILY VIII. 

 T^NIOIDES.(l) 



This family is closely connected with the Scomberoides, and its 

 first genus is even intimately allied with Gempilus and Thyrsites; the 

 fishes which compose it are elongated, flattened on the sides, and 

 have very small scales. 



In the first tribe we find the muzzle elongated, the mouth cleft and 

 armed with strong, pointed and trenchant teeth, and the lower jaw 

 advancing beyond the upper one: it comprises but two genera, 



LEPIDOPUS, Gouan. 



Whose special character consists in the reduction of the ventrals to small 

 scaly plates. The. thin and elongated body is furnished with a dorsal above, 

 which extends throughout its length, with alow anal beneath, and terminates 

 in a well formed caudal; there are eight rays in the branchiae. 



TRICHIURUS, Lin. 



The same form of body, muzzle, and jaws, as in Lepidopus; similar pointed 

 and trenchant teeth, and a dorsal extending along the back, but the ventrals 

 and caudal are wanting, and the tail is drawn out into a long, slender, and 

 compressed filament. In lieu of the anal there is merely a suite of small 

 and hardly perceptible spines on the under edge of the tail; the branchiae 

 have but seven rays. They resemble beautiful silver ribands. 



A second tribe comprehends genera in which the mouth is small, 

 and but slightly cleft. 



GYMNETRUS, Bl. 



The body elongated and fiat, as in all the preceding divisions, and totally 

 deprived of the anal fin; but there is along dorsal whose lengthened anterior 

 rays form a sort of panache, but they are easily broken; the ventrals, when 

 not worn or broken, are very long, and the caudal, composed of very few 

 rays, rises vertically from the extremity of the tail, which ends in a small 

 hook. 



The Arctic ocean produces two species, called in Norway the King of 

 the Herrings; one of which is said by some to have one hundred and twenty 

 rays, and by others one hundred and sixty, and to attain the length of ten 

 feet; the other has more than four hundred rays, and is eighteen feet in 



(1) Riband-like. 



