ORDER I. BONY FISHES. ACANTHOPTERYGII (SPINY-FINS) 159 
ly toothed, but there are no teeth in the pre-operculum ; their gills have five 
rays ; they have many spinous rays in the dorsal and anal, and their stomach 
is of middle size, rounded, and with three coecular appendages td the 
pyrolus. Only one species is known, which not only quits the water, and 
inoves over banks, but is said by Daldorf to climb bushes and trees by 
means of its dorsals and the spines on the gill-lids ; but others dispute the 
latter power. This species is very common in India. 
Potyacantuus has the spinous rays as numerous as the last genus, or 
even more so, and the same mouth, scales, and interrupted lateral lines, 
but the gill-lid is not toothed ; the body is compressed ; there are four rays 
in the gills, a narrow band of small, crowded teeth in the jaws, but no pal- 
atal teeth; the labyrinths are less complicated, and the pyrolus has only 
two coecular appendages. 
Macroropus differs from the last in having the dorsal less extended, and 
that in the caudal and ventral ending in slender points; the anal is also 
larger than the dorsal. 
Hesosroma have a small, compressed mouth, so protractile as to advance 
from and retreat to the sub-orbitals: they have small teeth on the lips, and 
some on the jaws of the palate; five gill-rays, on the arches of which, 
towards the mouth, there are lamelle resembling the external ones; the 
stomach is small, and has only two pyrolie coeca, but their intestine is long ; 
the air-bladder is very stout. 
OsPHROMANUS is so called from a conjecture, apparently erroneous, that 
the labyrinths of the pharynx are organs of smell, resembles Polyacanthus, 
but has the forehead concave, the anal longer than the dorsal, the sub- 
orbitals and inferior edge of the pre-operculum finely toothed, the first soft 
ray of the ventrals very long, six gill-rays, the body much compressed. One 
species, O. alfax, grows as large as a turbot, and is considered more deli- 
cious. It has been introduced into ponds in the Isle of France and Cayenne, 
where it thrives well. The female, as in many other species of fish, digs a 
cavity in the sand for the reception of her eges. 
Tricnoropus has the forehead more convex than the last, a shorter dor- 
sal, and only four gill-rays. The only known species is a small fish from 
the Oriental Isles, of a brownish color, with a dark spot on the side. 
Sprroprancuus resembles the Anabas, but has no teeth on the gill-lids, 
but teeth in the palate. ‘The only known species is a minute fish of South- 
ern Africa. 
OpuicerHawus, like the rest of the family in most of its characters, es- 
pecially in the pharyngeal labyrinth, and can creep for some distance over 
land; but it differs from all other Acanthropteryeii in having no spines in 
the fins, except a short one on the first of the ventrals; the body is long 
