ACANTHOPTERYGII. 161 



Trichiurus, Lin. — Lepturus, Artedi. — Gymnogaster, 



Gronov. 



The same form of body, muzzle, and jaws, as in Lepidopusj simi- 

 lar pointed and trenchant teeth, and a dorsal extending along- the 

 back, but the ventrals and caudal are wanting, and the tail is drawn 

 out into a long, slender, and compressed filament. In lieii of the 

 anal there is merely a suite of small and hardly perceptible spines on 

 the under edge of the tail^ the branchiiis have but seven rays. They 

 resemble beautiful silver ribands; their stomach is elongated and 

 thick; their intestines straight; their cxca numerous, and their na- 

 tatory bladder long and simple. 



Trich. lepturus, Lin.; Brown, Jam., pi. xlv, f. 4,(1) is found 

 in the Atlantic, both on the coast of America and that of Africa. 

 Two other species are known from the Indian Ocean, one of 

 which Trich. haumela, Schn. ; Chipea haumela, Forsk., and 

 Gmel.; Savala, Russel, I, 41, is very similar to the lepturus, 

 being only somewhat shorter. The other, Trich. savala, Cuv., 

 is still less elongated, and has a smaller eye.(2) 



A second tribe comprehends genera in which the mouth is 

 small, and but slightly cleft. 



Gymnetrus, B1. 



The body elongated and flat, as in all the preceding divisions, and. to- 

 tally deprived of the anal fin; but there is a long dorsal whose length- 

 ened anterior rays form a sort of panache, but they are easily broken; 

 the ventrals, when not worn or broken, are very long, and the caudal, 

 composed of very few rays, rises vertically from the extremity of the 

 tail, which ends in a small hook. There are six rays in the branchiae: 

 the mouth is slightly cleft, very protractile, and furnished with but 

 few and small teeth; some small spines on the lateral line, which 

 are more salient towards the tail. These fishes are extremely soft, 

 and their rays very fragile; they have been frequently and incorrectly 

 figured from mutilated specimens;(3) their bones, the vertebrae in 



(1) It is the ZT&irre of Laet., Ind. Occid. 573, which, through a mistake, pointed 

 out by himself, he has placed in Marcgr.,p. 161, as belonging' to the description of 

 the Mucu, which is a Muracna; tliis mistake has produced such confusion, that Bloch 

 and others were led to believe that the Trichiurus is a fresh-water fish. 



(2) A transposition in the text of Nicuhof has caused electric properties to be 

 attributed to the Trichiuri of India, which they most assuredly do not possess. 



(3) The Falx vcnciorum of Belon, of which Gouan has made his genus Tka 



Vol II.— V 



