182 FISHES. 



enveloped with fat. The bladder is long, ample, and simple. The Mor- 

 myri are ranked among the best fishes of the Nile. 



One portion of them has a cylindrical muzzle and a long dorsal*. 



A second has a cylindrical muzzle and a short dorsal -j-. 



It is very probable, as observed by M. Geoffroy, that it is in one of 

 these two subdivisions that the Oxyrynchus, venerated by the Egyptians, 

 is to be found. 



In a third the snout is short and rounded, and the dorsal short J. 



In a fourth the forehead forms a gibbous projection in front of the 

 mouth §. 



The third family of the Abdominal Malacopterygians is that of 



FAMILY III. 



SILURID.E, 



The Siluroids, which is distinguished from all others of this order by 

 the invariable absence of true scales, having merely a naked skin, or large 

 osseous plates. The intermaxillaries, suspended under the ethmoid, form 

 the edge of the upper jaw, and the maxillaries are reduced to simple ves- 

 tiges, or are extended into cirri. The intestinal canal is ample, flexed, 

 and without ca;ca; the bladder large, and adhering to a peculiar bony ap- 

 paratus ; the first ray of the dorsal and pectoral is, almost always, a strong 

 articulated spine, and there is frequently an adipose one behind, as in the 

 Salmon. 



Silurtjs||, Lin. 



A numerous genus, easily recognized by its nudity, by the cleft mouth 

 at the extremity of the snout, and, in the greater number of the subgenera, 

 by the strong spine which forms the first ray of the pectoral. It is so ar- 

 ticulated with the bone of the shoulder that the fish can voluntarily either 

 bring it close to the body, or fix it perpendicularly in an immoveable po- 

 sition, constituting then a dangerous weapon, wounds from which are con- 



* The Morm. d'Hasselquist, Geoff. Poiss. du Nil, pi. vi, f. 2; — M. caschive, Has- 

 selq. 398, which appears to me to differ from the preceding in several important cha- 

 racters, judging from the description; — the M. oxyrinque, Geoff., pi. vi, f. 1, which is 

 the Centriscus niloticus, Schn., pi. 30; — M. commune, Forsk. 74, which does not agree 

 with any of the preceding by the description. 



\ The Morm. de Denderah or anguilloides, L., Geoff., pi. vii, f. 2, confounded with 

 the Caschive of Hasselq. by Linnaeus, but which is the Herse, Sonnini, Voy. en Eg., 

 pi. xxii, f. 1 . 



X The Morm. de Sallieyhe, M. labiatus, Geoff., pi. xxii, f. 1 ; — the M. de Belbeys, M. 

 dor salts, Id., pi. viii, f. 1, which is the Kaschnue, Sonnerat, pi. xxi, f. 3. 



§ The Morm. bane or M. cyprino'ides, L., Geoff., pi. viii, f. 2. N. B. The Nile pro- 

 duces several other unpublished species. 



|| Siluriis and Glanis, two antient names, at one time employed as synonymes, and, 

 at another, as the reverse, given to certain fishes of the Nile, Danube, and Orontes, 

 and of some rivers of Asia Minor. It is almost certain that they belong to this 

 genus. 





