ACANTHOPTERYGII. 121 



From one to two feet long, tinged with yellow and red, varied 

 with brown. 



Hemilepidotus, Cuv. 



The head nearly similar to that of a Cottus, but there is only one 

 dorsalj the palatines furnished with teethj longitudinal bands of 

 scales on the body, separated by others which are naked. A thick 

 epidermis prevents these scales from being seen until the skin is 

 dried. 



The species known are from the north of the Pacific.(l) 



Platycephalus, B1. 



This genus has been separated from Cottus for still stronger rea- 

 sons. The ventrals are large, six-rayed, and placed behind the pec- 

 torals; the head is much depressed, with trenchant edges, and armed 

 with spines, but is not tuberculous; the branchiae have seven rays 

 and they are covered with scales; a range of sharp teeth in the pala- 

 tines, 8cc. They inhabit the Indian Ocean, and bury themselves in 

 the sand to watch for their prey. 



It is on this account that one species has been called insidia- 

 tor, — Cottus insidiator, L.(2) 



ScORPiENA, Lin. 



The head, like that of a Cottus, mailed and roughened, but com- 

 pressed on the sides; body covered with scales; several rays in the 

 branchiae, and but a single dorsal. If we except the armature of 

 the cheek, and the tubercles which frequently give them an odd ap- 

 pearance, they closely approximate to certain Percoides, such as the 

 Acerinse and theCentropristes; but though the inferior rays of their 



hispidus, Bl., Schn., 63; the Scorpaenaflava, Mitchill, Ann. New York Lye. I, ii, 8; 

 and perhaps the Scorpsena americana, Gmel., Duhamel, Sect. V, pi. ii, f. 5; but 

 this figure must be very incorrect. 



(1) Cottus hemilepidotus, Tilesius, Mem. Ac. Petersb., Ill, pi. xi, f. 1, 2, which 

 is probably the Cottus trachurus, Pall. Zoog., Russ., Ill, 138. 



(2) It is also the Cottus spatula, Bl, 424, the Cotte madegasse, Lacep., Ill, ii, 

 12; the Callionymus indicus, L., Russel, 46, or Calliomore indien, Lacep.; — Add, 

 Platyc. endrachtensis, Quoy et Gaym., Voy. Freycin. p. 353; — Cott. scaber, L., Bl. 

 189, Russel, 47; — the two species or varieties of Krusenstern, pi. 59: — the Sand- 

 kruyper of Renard, part II, pi. 1, f. 210, and ten nevr species described in the 

 fourth volume of our Icthyology ; but the Plat, undecimalis, Bl. Schn., is a Centra- 

 pomus; his PI. saxatilis a Cychla, and his PL dormitator an Eleotris. 



N.B. The only foundation of the genus Centranodon, Lac^p., iathe pretended 

 Silurus imberbis of Houttuyn, which is a mere Platycephalus. 

 Vol. II.~Q 



