108 FISHES. 



Gasterosteus*, Cuv. 



The Epinoches have also the cheek mailed, although the head is neither 

 tuberculous nor spinous, as in the preceding genera. Their peculiar cha- 

 racter is the freedom of the dorsal spines, and their not forming a fin, in 

 their pelvis, united to the humeral bones, being larger than usual, and thus 

 furnishing the abdomen with a sort of bony mail. Their ventrals, placed 

 farther back than the pectorals, are nearly reduced to a single spine ; there 

 are but three rays to the branchiae. 



Some of them abound in the fresh waters of Europe. 

 Two species are confounded under the name of Stickleback, — 

 Gasterosteus aculeatus, L. (The Banstickle), which have three free 

 dorsal spines ; but the entire side of one of them, G. trachurus, Cuv. 

 Bl., pi. 53, f. 3, is covered with scaly plates to the very end of the tail. 

 These plates are only found on the pectoral region in the other, G. 

 gymnurus, Cuv. Willoughb., 341. Both these species are sometimes 

 so abundant in certain rivers in England and the north of Europe, 

 that they are used to manure the land, feed hogs, furnish oil, &c.y 



G. pungitius, L. ; Bl. 53, 4, (The Lesser Stickleback), is the 

 smallest of the European fresh-water fishes ; nine very short spines 

 on the back ; sides of the tail with carinated scales ; another closely 

 allied species inhabits the same streams, G. Icevis, Cuv., in which 

 this armature is wanting. A separate subgenus might be made of 

 the 



G. spinochia, L.; Bl. 53, 1, (The larger Stickleback), a salt- 

 water species, of an elongated and slender form, with fifteen short 

 dorsal spines, and the entire lateral line covered with carinated scales. 

 Its abdominal shield is divided in two ; and, besides the spine, there 

 are two small rays in the ventral. 



After this family we place the 



Oreosoma, Cuv., 



A small oval fish, whose whole body, above and beneath, is studded with 

 thick cones of a horny substance, like hills. There are four of them on 

 the back, and ten on the belly, arranged in two series, with several smaller 

 intermediate ones. It was discovered in the Atlantic by Peron J. The 

 third family of the Acanthopterygians, that of 



* N. B. This name, which signifies bony belly, is only applicable to the Gasteros- 

 tei as we have defined them, and not to several of the Scomberoides, united with them 

 by Linnasus on account of their dorsal spines being free : these latter we refer to our 



LlCHIA. 



f Neighbouring species or three-spined Sticklebacks: G. argyropomus, Cuv.; — G. 

 brachycentrus, Cuv.; — G. tetracanlhus, Cuv., three Italian species; — G. noveboraccnsis, 

 Cuv.; — G. niger, Cuv., or biaculeatus, Mitchill, Ann. New York Lye. I, 1, 10; — G. 

 quadratus, Id. lb. f. 11; — G. cataphractus, Tiles. Mem. Acad. Petersb. Ill, viii, 1. 



% The fig. and detailed description will be found in our fourth Vol. on Icthyology. 

 Orcosoma, a mountainous body. 



