172 • PISCES. 



branches of the lower jaw, which are raised vertically and provided 

 with a range of transparent pointed teeth, forming a kind of saw, 

 are enclosed, when the mouth is shut, by those of the upper one. 

 There is also a small series of pointed teeth in each palatine, aud 

 two in the vomer. Their stomach is fleshy and doubled, their cae- 

 cums numerous, and their intestine long. The oesophagus is fur- 

 nished internally with hard and pointed papillae. 



Tetrag. Cuvieri, Risso; Courpata or Corbeau, of the Mediter- 

 ranean coast, is the only species known, and is never taken ex- 

 cept in very deep water. It is a foot long, and blackj the scales 

 hard, deeply striate and indented. The flesh is said to be poi- 

 sonous.(l) 



I also place a genus between the Mugiloides and the Go- 

 bioidesj which does not completely harmonize with any other. 

 I mean the 



Atherina, Lin. 



The body elongated; two dorsals widely separated; the ventrals fur- 

 ther back than the pectorals; the mouth highly protractile and fur- 

 nished with very minute teeth; abroad silvery band along each flank 

 on all the known species. There are six rays in the branchiae; the 

 stomach has no cul-de-sac, and their duodenum no caecal appendages. 

 The transverse processes of the last abdominal vertebrae are bent, 

 and thus form a little conical bag or cornet, which receives the point 

 of the natatory bladder. These little fishes are highly esteemed for 

 the delicacy of their flesh. The young ones remain for a long time in 

 crowded troops, and are consumed on the coast of the Mediterranean 

 under the name of Nonnat, the Jlphyes of the ancients. Several 

 species inhabit European seas, hitherto confounded with the £th. 

 hepsetus, L. 



^th. hepsetus, Cuv. -,(2) Sauclet ofLanguedoc, or Cabassous of 



Provence; Rondel., 2\6; Duham., sect. VI, pi. iv, f. 3. The 



head somewhat pointed; nine spinous rays in the first dorsal; 



eleven soft ones in the second, and twelve in the anal; fifty-five 



vertebrae in all. 



^th. Boyer, Risso; Joel or Cabassouda., Rondel., 217. The 



(1) There is no g-ood figure of it: Mugil niger, Rondel. 423; Corvus niloticus, 

 Aldrov., Pise, 610; Risso, Ed. I, pi. x, f. 37. 



(2) This is probably the special type of the hepsetus of Linnjeus. It is neces- 

 sary to observe that the figure called Atherina hepsetus, Bl., pi. cccxciii, f. 3, and 

 Syst., pi. xxix, f. 2, is purely ideal. 



