98 FISHES. 



Voy. Freycin., Zool., liii, 1, 2. The only species known: also from 

 Brazil. 

 One of the most remarkable genera of the Jugular Perches is that of 



Uranoscopus, Lin., 



The Star-Gazers, so called because, on the superior surface of their 

 nearly cuboid head, the eyes are so placed as that they appear constantly 

 looking on the heavens : the mouth is cleft vertically ; the lower part of 

 the preoperculum is crenate, and there is a stout spine to each shoulder ; 

 but six rays in the branchiae. In the mouth and before the tongue is a 

 long and narrow slip, which can be protruded at will, and serves, it is said, 

 to attract small fish, while it remains concealed in the mud. A remark- 

 able peculiarity of their anatomy is the enormous size of the gall-bladder, 

 a fact well known to the antients*. 



In some, the first dorsal, small and spinous, is separated from the se- 

 cond which is soft and long. 



Uranos. scaber, L. ; Bl. 173. (The Mediterranean Star-Gazer). 

 Grey-brown, with irregular ranges of whitish spots. Although one 

 of the most hideous of fishes, it is eaten. From the Mediterranean. 

 Very similar species are found in the Indian Ocean, and in Bra- 

 zil -p. 

 Others have but one dorsal in which the spinous and soft parts are 

 united. They are all foreign to our seas^. 



In a third division of the Perches, the ventrals are inserted further 

 back than the pectorals: they are the Abdominal Perches. The first 

 genus is 



PoLYNEMUS, L. 



The Paradise Fish, so named, because several of the inferior pectoral 



rays are free, and form so many filaments§ ; the ventrals are not very far 



back, and the pelvis is still suspended to the bones of the shoulder. They 



are allied to the Perches by the teeth, dense as the pile on velvet, or bent 



back like those of a wool-card, which arm their jaws, vomer, and palate ; 



but their snout is convex, and the vertical fins scaly as in many of the 



Scienoides : the two dorsals are separated, the preoperculum* is dentated, 



and the mouth deeply cleft: they are found in all the seas of hot climates. 



Pol. paradiseus and Pol. quinquarius, L. ; Seb. Ill, xxvii, 2 ; 



Edw., 208; Russel, 285. (The Mango Fish). So called from its 



fine yellow colour: has seven filaments on each side, the first of 



which are twice the length of the body. The natatory bladder is 



* Arist. Hist., An., lib. II, xv. 



■) Add Uranosc. affinis, Ur. marmoralus, Ur. gultatus, Ur.filibarbis, Ur. Y gracum ; 

 new species described in our third vol. of Icthyology. 



J Uranosc. Icbcck, Bl., Scbn., p. 47; Ur. monopterygius, lb. 49; — Ur. lavis, lb., pi. 

 viii; — Ur. inermis, Cuv. et Val. Ill, lxxi, and Ur.cirrhosus, two new species. 



§ From the Greek nerna (i. thread). 



