ACANTHOPTERYGFANS. 99 



wanting in this species, although it exists in all the others : it is the 

 most delicious fish that is eaten in Bengal. 



The filaments of the remaining Polynemi are shorter than the 

 hody, and their number is one of their specific characters. Some 

 of them are large, and all are considered excellent food*. 



In the succeeding genera the ventrals are altogether behind, and the 

 pelvis no longer adheres to the bones of the shoulder. The first, for a 

 long time, was even confounded with that of the Pikes: it is the genus 



Sphyr^na|, Bl. Schn. 



Large fishes of an elongated form, with two separated dorsals, an oblong 

 head, the lower jaw of which projects in a point before the upper one, and 

 part of whose teeth are large, pointed and trenchant. Their preoperculum 

 is not dentated, nor their operculum spinous. There are seven rays to the 

 branchiae, and numerous pyloric appendages. One species is found in the 

 Mediterranean. 



Sph. vulgaris; Esox sphyrcena, L. ; Sphyene spet, Lacep.J; Bl. 

 389; Le Spet; Espeto (the Spanish for Pike); which attains a length 

 of more than three feet; back bronzed; belly silvery; brown spots 

 when young. 



Sph. picuda, Bl. Schn.; Parr., xxxv, 5, 2; Lac, V, ix, 3. A 

 closely allied American species. The same country produces another, 

 Sph. barracuda, Cuv. ; Catesb., II, pi. 1, f. 1. Which becomes 

 much larger, and is nearly as much dreaded as the shark. 



Paralepis, Cuv. 



Small fishes resembling the Sphyraena?, but whose second dorsal is so 

 small and frail that it has been considered as adipose§. 



Mullus, Lin. 



The Surmullets are rather closely allied to the Perches by several ana- 

 tomical and external details, though the species which compose it present 

 so many remarkable peculiarities that they might readily be made to con- 

 stitute a separate family. Their two dorsals are far apart; the entire body 

 and opercula are covered with large scales which are easily dislodged ; the 

 preoperculum is without dentations; the mouth is slightly cleft and but 

 weakly armed with teeth, and above all they are distinguished by two long 



* Polyn. plebeius, or Emo'i, Brouss., 131., 400; — Pol. urovemus, Cuv. Russel, 1S4; — 

 Pol. tetradactylus, Shaw, Russel, 183; — Pol. sextarius, Bl. Schn., pi. iv; — Pol. ennea- 

 dactulus, Vahl.; — Pol. decadactylus, Bl. 401; — Polynemus americanus, Cuv., which is 

 the species improperly named by Bl., pi. 402, paradis&us, and of which M. de Lace- 

 pcde has also improperly made a particular genus, his Polyductyle plunder, V, xiv, 3. 



f From the Greek sphuraina, a dart. 



j Spet, from Espeto, the Spanish name of the Pike. 



§ Two or three small species described by Risso, 2d ed. f. 15 and 1C, inhabit the 

 Mediterranean. 



h2 



