JiALACOPTEnOL'S AbDOJIINALS.- 



-FISnES- 



-CllAKACINOIDS. 



149 



representatives of the northern Salmon family. Many 

 of them are important articles of diet with the natives. 



The DouADO or Pirayu {Salminus orl/ir/nt/amis), 

 which receives its popular name from its hright golden- 

 yellow colour, appears at times in such quantities in 

 the rivers Uruguay and Parana as to obstruct the navi- 

 gation, and the fishermen are said to be able to smell 

 the passing sculls from a distance. The fish is much 

 citeemed, and is readily caught by a hook baited with 

 moat. The Pacu (Prochilodus lincatus), a fish of the 

 same rivers and also of the Plata, is reported to be 

 delicious. Like the other species which are numerous 

 in the Brazils, the lips of the Pacu are remarkably 

 thick, and are fringed densely with teeth as slender as 

 hairs. The Nf.fascii {Distkhodus) is a fish of the 

 Nile, which lives on water plants, cropping them vfith 

 its teeth, that are well-formed for the purpose. Fishing 

 parties are frequently represented on the walls of the 

 ancient Egyptian temples, with the dried fish suspended 

 in the boats ; and Herodotus informs us that fish was 

 an important article of food to the inhabitants of ancient 

 Kgypt. The rowers are represented as standing to 

 their oars in these boats. 



The Caribitos {Scrmscdmo) are Characiuoids noted 

 in all the warm districts of America for their extreme 

 blood-thirstiness. They are compressed rhomboidal 

 fish, whose jaws are armed with chisel-shaped, very 

 sharp teeth, with which they attack bathers, carrying 

 olTa morsel of fiesh at each bite so quickly and cleanly 

 that the sufferer is scarcely aware at the moment of 

 the injury he has sustained. If an animal falls into the 

 water it is speedily devoured by swarms of these carni- 

 vorous fish ; and Humboldt has reported, though with 

 some reserve, a story which was current when he was 

 travelling in Venezuela : — A gentleman and bis horse 

 in crossing the Orinoco at a ford were half reduced to 

 tha condition of skeletons before they reached the oppo- 

 site bank. Though this cannot be literally true, it 

 shows the popular idea of the voracity of these fishes. 

 Their haunts are at the bottoms of the rivers, but a 

 few drops of blood sufiice to bring them by thousands 

 to the surface ; and Humboldt himself mentions that in 

 some p irts of the Apure, where the water was perfectly 

 clear and no fish were visible, he could in a few minutes 

 bring together a cloud of Caribitos by casting in some 

 bits of flesh. The PiranciA {Scrrasalmo piraya) of 

 the Itio San Francisco is thus mentioned by M. Augusto 

 St. Ililaire: — "When the country is in Hood the horned 

 cattle resort to little hills that rise out of the water, and 

 as these would in their turn be submerged, the inha- 

 bitants go in little boats to make the animals take the 

 water and swim to the firm land. In these passages 

 the poor beasts are exposed to the cruel attacks of the 

 Piranhas, or Devil-fish, which seldom reach two feet 

 in length, but which swim in large bands, and liavc 

 triangular trenchant teeth in their jaws. If an animal 

 or a man falls into the water, it is instantly attacked 

 by these fish, ami the bile is as keen as the cut of a 

 ra/.or." lie adds tliat the Piraidtas have firm flesh, of 

 a very delicate flavour. The Phagrus of the ancient 

 Egyptians is supposed by iM. Valenciennes to be a 

 Characinoid, which bears the poetic name in modern 

 Arabic of G'umor el Icllch (Star of the Night), and in 



iehthj'ology of Citharimis Geoffrcei; and the Kcll el 

 Lain; or liivcr Dog {Ilydrocyon Forshalii), is another 

 of the same family, believed to be the ancient Lcjn- 

 dotus. These two in conjunction with the Oxyrhyii- 

 cJius, according to mythological fable related by 

 Plutarch, devoured a certain part of Osiris, when his 

 body cut up into fomteen pieces had been scattered 

 over the waters by Typho. Isis, the wife of Osiris, 

 after a painful search recovered thirteen pieces, and to 

 supply the absence of the missing one consecrated a 

 representative of it ; but the fish that in conformity 

 with their carnivorous habits had made the sacrilegious 

 abstraction, wore ever afterwards held in abhorrence 

 by the Egyptians. The negroes of Senegal, however, 

 esteem the Kell el hahr to be a very edible fish, though 

 its flesh is full of slender ribs. They say that it was 

 sent by its piscine associates to a far country with 

 many messages, and as an aid to its memory, each fish 

 with its commission gave it a rib; being, however, made 

 prisoner on the way, the messages were never delivered, 

 and the memorial ribs remained therefore in the bodies 

 of the fish and of its progeny. 



The White-bait of China (Salanx liecvesii) is a 

 delicate, pale, semitranspareiit fish of this family, which 

 makes its appearance with other luxuries on the break- 

 fast tables of European residents in the East. The 

 species of Pcccilurichthys inhabiting the rivers of Trini- 

 dad are there called " Sardines," and the Curimati are 

 termed " Silver-fish." 



Family XL— SCOPELIDANS.— Plato 3, fig. IG. 



This group consists of scaly or scaleloss fishes with 

 most generally an adipose fin, which in some is so 

 tender as to disappear during life. The mouth is 

 bounded above by the premasillaries, that extend 

 from corner to corner, the maxillaries lying bchiud ; 

 but in a few genera touching the angle of the mouth. 

 Pseudobranchiaj are present, and the swim-bladder 

 is generally absent. The eggs, which are largo 

 and single, are discharged through an ovarian tube, 

 instead of falling loose into the cavity of the belly, as 

 in the Salmonoids. MlUler separated the Scopdida: 

 from the Characimdie ; but the characters he at first 

 relied upon were not found on further investigation of 

 the species to be sufllciently constant, and they are 

 generally now comprised in one family. As wo have 

 grouped them, the Scopelidans have the upper lip more 

 completely formed by the preraaxillarics than the 

 Salmonoids and the Characiuoids, large mouths, and a 

 kind of family aspect. Several genera connect both 

 groups, on the one side to the Chipooids, and on the 

 other to the Salmonoids, 



The genera are — Argy7'b^>ehcus; Sler/iopfyx; Odoniostomn.^ ; 

 Scopelus; Saurits; Suut^ida; Farionella; Aidopus; Paralepi.-f; 

 Akidsaurus; together with Manrokius; Ichflii/ocoais; Chhroph- 

 tliiilimis; and some others of the Jlejitcrranean iclithyologist.'s, 

 comprised in the Cuvieran genus Scopcltis, 



The KowTOO of the Chinese, or "Dog's-guts" {Savriis 

 ophiodon), or the Neiiar of the Gangetic fisliermen, is 

 fished in vast numbers on the Malabar coast, at the 

 mouths of the Ganges, at Canton, and Chusan. The 

 Hindostanees eat it fresli, and when salted it appears on 



