ACANTIIOPTERYGIANS. 157 



fatty substance, from which oil is obtained by compression. It is 

 only to be had when dead, after a storm. 



Platypterus, Kuhl and Van Hasselt. 



Have the broad and separated ventrals of a Callionymus ; a short de- 

 pressed head; the mouth small, and branchiae open; scales broad; the 

 two dorsals short and separated*. 



It is with some hesitation that I close this family with a genus which 

 will one day probably form the type of a separate family; I mean the 



Chirus, Stell. — Labrax, Pall. 



Fishes with a tolerably long body, furnished with ciliated scales ; a 

 small unarmed head; slightly cleft mouth, provided with small, unequal, 

 conical teeth, the spines of whose dorsal are almost always very delicate, 

 the fin itself extending the whole length of the back; their distinguishing 

 character consists in several series of pores, similar to the lateral line, 

 or, as it were, in several lateral lines. There are no caeca to the intes- 

 tines, and they frequently have an appendage on the eye-brow, as is the 

 case with certain Blennies, but their ventrals consist of five soft rays, as 

 usual. The species known are from the sea of Kamtschatkay. 



FAMILY XIII. 



I form, as the thirteenth family, the 



PEDICULATED PECTORALES, 



Out of certain Acanthopterygians, whose carpal bones are elongated so as 

 to form a sort of arm, which supports their pectorals. It comprises two 

 genera, which are closely approximated, although authors have generally 

 placed them at a considerable distance from each other, and which are 

 closely allied to the Gobioides. 



Lopiiius j, Lin. 



The Anglers have for their general character, independently of the 

 semi-cartilaginous skeleton and the naked skin, the pectorals supported by 



* Platyptera melanocephala, K. and V. II.; PL trigonoeephala, Id.; two fishes from 

 India to be described in our Icthyology. 



t Labrax higocephalu.i ; — L. dccogrammus ; — L. stiperciliosus ; — L. monopterygius ; — 

 L. ortogrammus ; — L. hexagrammus ; all described and figured by Pallas, Mem. Acad. 

 Petersb., vol. XI, 1810. 



X Lopldus, a name made by Artedi, from Lophia (pinna), on account of the crests 

 of their head. The antients called them Batrachos, and Rana, or Frog. 



