APODAL MALACOPTERYGIANS. 227 



O. barbatum, Bl. 59. (The Common Donzelle). Flesh-coloured; 

 dorsal and anal bordered with black; the anterior cirri shortest; 

 greatest length from eight to ten inches. 



O. Vassalli, Risso. (The Common Donzelle). Brown; no edging 

 on the fins; cirri equal. The stomach of these fishes is a thin 

 oblong sac; their intestines, which have several flexures, are without 

 caeca ; their oval, large, and very thick natatory bladder is supported 

 by three peculiar bones suspended under the first vertebrae, the mid- 

 dle one of which is moved by its proper muscles. Their flesh is 



We are acquainted with a third species, which belongs to Brazil; it is, 

 0. brevibarbe, Cuv. Brown, with shorter cirri. 

 O. blacodes, Schn. 484*. From the South Seas; a very large 

 rose-coloured species, spotted with brown. 



FlERASFER, CUV. 



The Fierasfers are destitute of cirri, and their dorsal is so thin that it 

 seems to be a mere fold of the skin; their natatory bladder is supported 

 by two little bones only, the middle one being wanting. 



One species is found in the Mediterranean, — Ophidiurn imberbe, 

 L.-j-, whose teeth are small and crowded; and another, — Oph. denta- 

 tum, Cuv., which has two hooked teeth in each jaw. They are very 

 small fishes. 



Ammodytes, Lin. 



The Launces have the elongated body of the preceding fishes, and are 

 provided with a fin, having articulated but simple rays, occupying a great 

 part of the back, with a second behind the anus, and with a third, which 

 is forked, at the end of the tail; these three fins, however, are separated 

 by free spaces. The snout is very sharp; the upper jaw is extensile, and 

 the lower one, when at rest, longer than the other. The stomach of 

 these fishes is fleshy and pointed; they have neither cseca nor natatory 

 bladder, and they live in the sand, whence they are taken after the tide 

 has ebbed. 



Two species are found on the coast of France, which were long con- 

 founded under the common name of Ammodytes tobianus, L., but which 

 have lately been distinguished J. They are, 



* Add, the Ophidiurn barbatum, Mitch. I, f. 2, which appears to be a distinct spe- 

 cies. 



f It is the Gymnotus acus, Gm., and the Notoptifre fontanes, Risso, ed. I, pi. iv, 

 f. 11. 



With the Ophidiurn imberbe, of the northern Ichthyologists, such as Schonefeldt, 

 Montag., Werner. Soc. I, pi. ii, f. 2, and the Ophidiurn tiride, Fab., Faun. Groenl. 

 148, I am unacquainted; I believe them, however, to be allied to the Eels. 



The Ophidiurn ocellatum, Tiles., Mem. Ac. Petersb. Ill, pi. 180, iii, 27, seems to 

 me to approach the Gunnelli. 



X It is to M. Lesauvage, a learned physician of Normandy, that we owe this dis- 

 tinction, but he has transposed the name of tobianus. See the Bullet, des Sc. Sept. 

 1824, p. 141. There remains to be ascertained whether the Ammodytes eicerellus, 

 Rafin., Caratt.. pi. ix, f. 4, differs from the tobianus. 



Q 2 



