^1$ THE CHAETODOW. 



Genus XXXIV Ch^odon. 



X HIS genus confifts of a tribe of no lefs than twenty- 

 three different kinds of fifh, all of them entirely exotic* 

 Their generic charadlers are, an oval body, covered with 

 very minute imbricated fcales ; a fmall flat head, with a 

 declining roftrum ; a fmgle dorfal fin, covered with fcales, 

 and rifing high above the back. ; two fmall peroral fins j 

 and immediately oppofite, upon the thorax, two fharp 

 pointed ventral ones. The tail is diftinft from the other 

 fins, fcaly, and in fome bifurcated *. As the fifties 

 of this tribe are in general inhabitants of a different 

 hemifphere, we ftiall not tire the reader with a tediou3 

 repetition of barbarous names, where the hiftory of th? 

 animals to which they belong is altogether unknown, 



* Guan. Hift. Pifc. p. ij8. 



