222 PISCES. 



the length of its ventrals, placed posterior to the middle of the body; the 

 fins of the young are marked with black bands. 



E. volitansy Bl. Common in the Atlantic Ocean, and has small ventrals 

 placed anterior to the middle of the body. 



The American seas produce species with cirri, which are sometimes sim- 

 ple, sometimes double, and even ramous. 



Next to the family of the Esoces we place a genus of fishes, which, 

 though varying but little from the former, has some anatomical dif- 

 ference. It will most probably give rise to a particular family. It 

 is the Mormyrus, Lin. They are found in the Nile. 



FAMILY III. 



SILURIDJS. 



This family is distinguished from all others of the order by the 

 want of true scales, having merely a naked skin or large osseous 

 plates. The intermaxillaries, suspended under the ethmoid, form 

 the edge of the upper jaw, and the maxillaries are reduced to sim- 

 ple vestiges, or are extended into cirri. The first ray of the dorsal 

 and pectoral is, almost always, a strong articulated spine, and there 

 is frequently an adipose one behind, as in the Salmon. 



SILURUS, Lin. 



A numerous genus, easily recognized by its nudity, the mouth cleft in the 

 extremity of the snout, and in the greater number of the sub genera, by the 

 strong spine which forms the first ray of the pectoral. It is so articulated 

 with the bone of the shoulder that the fish can either depress it, or raise it 

 perpendicularly, when it is immovable, constituting a dangerous weapon, 

 wounds from which are considered as poisoned, an idea arising from the fact 

 that tetanus frequently ensues. They are usually called Cat-fish. 



S. glanis, L. The largest fresh water fish found in Europe, and the only 

 one of this extensive genus that it possesses; it is smooth, black, greenish, 

 spotted with black above, with yellowish white beneath; head large; with 

 six cirri; it sometimes exceeds six feet in length, and weighs three hundred 

 pounds. It inhabits the rivers of Germany and Hungary, the lake of 

 Haarlem, &c., and conceals itself in the mud to watch for prey. The* flesh, 

 which is fat, is employed in some places for the same purposes as lard. 

 There are various subgenera. 



MALAPTERURUS, Lacep. 

 Is distinguished from Silurus, properly so called, by the absence of the radi- 



