ACANTHOPTERYGU. 99 



even a small spine at the angle of the preoperculum, and also deeper 

 notches in the sub-orbital and humeral bones. 



Lates niloticus, Cuv.; Perca nilolica, L.; Keschr of the Arabs, 

 Geoff. Egyp. Poiss. pi. ix, f. 1. A very large and excellent 

 fish of a silver colour, known to the ancients by the name of 

 Latus or Lates. 



Other species are found in the rivers of India,(l) 



Centropomus, Lacep. 



The preoperculum dentated, but the operculum obtuse and un- 

 armed. Only one species is known.(2) 



Centrop. undecimaliSy Cuv. ; Scicena undecimalis, Bl. 305; Cuv. 

 and Val. II, xiv. A large and excellent fish, known throughout 

 hot parts of America by the name of Pike, whose muzzle, in 

 fact, is depressed like that of our true Pike; but its teeth are 

 small and crowded, and all its remaining characters are those 

 of Perches with two dorsal fins; it is of a silver colour tinged 

 with greenish; a blackish lateral line. (3) 



Grammistes, Cuv. 



Preoperculum and operculum, armed with spines, but without 

 notches; the dorsals approximated; scales small, and as if buried in 

 the epidermis; no sensible spine to the anal fin. 



The species are small, with longitudinal white streaks on a 

 blackish ground. They inhabit the Indian Ocean. (4) 



ASPRO, Cuv. 



The body elongated; the two dorsals separate; ventrals broad; 

 teeth small and crowded; head depressed; the muzzle extending be- 

 yond the mouth and terminating in a rounded point. 



(1) The Peche naire of Pondichery, or Cockup of the English at Calcutta 

 (Lates nobilis, Cuv.) Russ. II, cxxxi, Cuv. and Val. II, xiii, which is also the Holo- 

 centre hepiadactyle,'L3ic6p.; — Holoc. calcarifer, Bl. 244. 



(2) Lacep. in his genus Centropomus, comprehends several Fishes which have 

 not its characters, such as the Lahrax lupus, the lates, &c. 



(3) Bl. pi. 305, has improperly given it a red tinge; the Sphyr^ne orvet, Lac^p., 

 V, pi. iv, f. 2, is nothing else than a bad figure of this Fish; it is also the Camuri 

 of Marcgrave. 



(4) Gram, orientalis, Bl., Cuv. and Val., II, pi. xxvii. La Sciene ray^e, Lacep. 

 IV, 323; his Persiqut tricanthe, lb. 424; his Per. pentacanihe, lb.; his Bodian six 

 raies, lb. 302; his Centropome six raies, V, 690; the Perca bilineata, Thunb. Nov. 

 Act. Stokh. XIII, pi. V, p. 142, appear to be varieties of it. 



