ACANTHOPTERYGII. 183 



Chirus, Stell. — Labrax, Pall. 



Fishes with a tolerably long body, furnished with ciliated scales; 

 a small unarmed head; slightly cleft mouth, provided with small, 

 unequal, conical teeth; the spines of whose dorsal are almost always 

 very delicate, the fin itself extending the whole length of the back. 

 Their distinguishing character consists in several series of pores, sim- 

 ilar to the lateral line, or, as it were, in several lateral lines. There 

 are no caeca to the intestines, and they frequently have an appendage 

 on the eye-brow, as is the case with certain Blennies, but their ven- 

 trals consist of five soft rays, as usual. The species known are from 

 the sea of Kamschatka.(l) 



FAMILY XIII. 

 PECTORALES PEDICULATI. 



This family consists of certain Acanthopterygii whose car- 

 pal bones are elongated so as to form a sort of arm, which sup- 

 ports their pectorals. It comprises two genera, which are 

 closely approximated although authors have generally placed 

 them at a distance from each other, and which are closely al- 

 lied to the Gobioides. 



LoPHius, Lin. (2) 

 The general character of this genus, independently of the semi- 

 cartilaginous skeleton and the naked skin, consists in the pectorals 

 being supported by two arms, as it were, each of which is formed of 

 two bones that have been compared to the radius and ulna, but 

 which in reality belong to the carpus, and which in this genus are 

 longer than in any other; in the ventrals being placed very far before 

 these pectorals; in opercula and branchiostegous rays enveloped in 

 the skin, and, finally, in the only opening of the gills being a hole 

 situated behind the said pectorals. They are voracious fishes, with 

 a wide stomach and short intestine, which survive a long time out 

 of water, on account of the smallness of their branchial apertures. 



(1) Labrax lagocephalus; — L. decagr animus, • — L. supercUiosus; — L. monoptery- 

 gius; — L. odogrammus; — L. hexagrammus; all described and figured by Pallas, 

 Mem. Acad. Petersb. vol. XI, 1810. 



(2) Lophius, a name made by Artedi, from \o<ptu {pinna), on account of the crests 

 of their head. The ancients called them ^oi.Tpa,^oc, and Rana or Frog. 



