IGO FISHES. 



sected present a stomach resembling an oblong sac, and short intestines, 

 but there is no caecum. The fore-part of the natatory bladder is deeply 

 bifurcated. They keep themselves hidden in the sand, to surprise their 

 prey, like the Lophius, &c. ; the wounds inflicted by their spines are re- 

 puted dangerous. They are found in both oceans. 



Some of them have a smooth and fungous skin, and a cutaneous ap- 

 pendage over the eye*. 



Others are covered with scales, and have no appendage over the eye-f. 



We might distinguish those in which the scales and cirri are wanting, 

 but which have lines of pores pierced in the skin J, and hooked teeth in 

 the lower jaw. 



The fourteenth family of the Acanthopterygians, or that of 



FAMILY XIV. 



LABROIDES, 



Is easily recognized; the body is oblong and scaly; a single dorsal is 

 supported in front by spines, each of which is generally furnished with a 

 membranous appendage ; the jaws are covered with fleshy lips ; there are 

 three pharyngeals, two upper ones attached to the cranium, and a large 

 lower one, all three armed with teeth, now as if paved, and then pointed 

 or laminiform, but generally stronger than usual; an intestinal canal 

 either without caeca, or with two very small ones, and a strong natatory 

 bladder. 



Labrus, Lin., 



Form a very numerous genus of fishes, which strongly resemble each 

 other in their oblong form ; their double fleshy lips, from which they de- 

 rive their name, one adhering immediately to the jaws, and the other to 

 the suborbitals; their crowded branchiae with five rays; their conical 

 maxillary teeth, the middle and anterior of which are the longest, and 

 their cylindrical and blunt pharyngeal teeth arranged as if paved, the up- 

 per ones on two large plates, the lower on a single one which corresponds 

 to the two others. Their stomach does not form a cul-de-sac, but is con- 

 tinuous with an intestine without caeca, which, after two inflexions, termi- 

 nates in a large rectum. They have a single and strong natatory bladder. 



* Batr. tau (Gadus tau, L.), or Lophhig hufo, Mitch., or Batrachoide verneul, Le- 

 sneur, Mem. Mus. V, xvii;— Batr. varie, Id. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. ;— Batr. grunniens, 

 (Cottas grunniens, L.), Bl. 179, Seb. Ill, xxiii, 4; — Batr. gangene, Buch. XIV, 8; — 

 Batr. dubius, Cuv., or L. dubius, J. White, 265, Nieuhof, Ap., Will. Ap. IV. 1; — 

 Batr. l-spinis. Cuv., or Batr. diemcnsis, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 



•f- Batr. surinamensis, Bl. Schn. pi. vii, given as the Tau, Lacep. II, xii, 1; — B. 

 conspicillum, Cuv., or the pretended Batr. tau, Bl. pi. lxvii, f. 2 and 3. 



X Batr. porosissimus, Cuv., Niqui, Marcgr. 178, or the second Niqui of Pison, 295. 

 N. B. The first Niqui of Pison, 294, is a badly copied figure from the collection 

 called Mentzel's, to which the engraver has added scales. 



