244 Dr. Hancock on some species of Fishes and Reptiles 



The second species of Hassar to which I have referred, or the round-^ 

 head, appears to be a new species of Callichthys, Linn., differing from the 

 Silurus Callichthys, (Ejusd. Syst. Nat.) and from the Call, asper, Quoy 

 and Gaim., by its forked tail ; and from the Cataphractus punctatus, 

 Bloch, by its thicker form, the shghter emargination of its caudal fin, and 

 its uniform colour. From the new species indicated by M. Cuvier, it 

 may also be distinguished by the first ray of its pectoral fins not being 

 dentated, but merely rough and rasp-like. 



Callichthys littoralis. 

 Call, caudd bifidd ; corpore crassiore : pinna pectoralis radio primo 



aspero. 



D. I, 1. P. i. V. 6. A. 7. C. 14. 



Tab. Supp. xxxii, fig. 1. 



The whole body is covered with a coat of mail, with a double series of 

 costiform plates, and a single narrow row on the back ; they are all so 

 fastened together by intervening muscular bands as to admit of motion in 

 every direction. The tail is forked, the head covered vnth a very hard 

 and strong shell, the eye small, with golden iris, the mouth has two cirri 

 at each corner. 



head, and whole body, except the thorax, are guarded as it were by a coat of 

 mail, consisting of strong bony plates, supporting four longitudinal rows of 

 curved spines on each side ; colour of the body bright reddish yellow, ele- 

 gantly variegated with black spots ; the fins red at the extremities. It grows 

 to about a foot in length. 



Gill membrane four-rayed. Anterior dorsal fin J, second dorsal fleshy. 

 Pectoral ^, ventrical ^. Caudal 17. This may be identical with the Locaria 

 plecostomus of Bloch, on the colouring of whose plates implicit reliance can- 

 not be placed. Its arms were more strongly developed than in Bloch's figure, 

 but in general form, colour, and disposition of its plates, it appears nearly iden- 

 tical. 



Another fish, approximating to the present genus, I had an opportunity to 

 observe, at the Portugueze Fort of St. Juaquin (the site of the fabled lake of 

 Parima). It was there called Baco ; whole length three feet ; body angular, en- 

 veloped in strong, bony, angular plates, studded with a single row of spines on 

 each side, hooked backwards ; colour uniform dark gray. This fish exhibits a 

 striking union of characters of two genera ; in respect to form, of the head and' 

 breast especially, it is a Silurus ; in its mailed body a perfect Loricaria ; head' 

 flat, and sloping in a strait line from the dorsal fin ; first ray of the dorsal and: 

 pectoral fins a very strong spine, the other fins fleshy. 



