212 PISCES. 



MouMYRus, Lin. (J) 



A compressed, oblong, scaly body; the tail thin at base, swelling out 

 near the fin; the head covered by a naked, thick skin, which enve- 

 lopes the opercula and branchial rays, leaving no opening in the 

 latter but a vertical fissure, a circumstance which has led some na- 

 turalists to assert that these fishes have no opercula, although they 

 are as perfect as in any other, and which has caused the number of 

 their branchial rays to be reduced to one, although they have five or 

 six. The opening of the mouth is small, and almost like that of the 

 mammiferous animal termed the Ant-Eater; its angles are formed 

 by the maxillaries. Slender teeth, emarginated at the ends, are 

 planted in the intermaxillaries and lower jaw, and there is a long 

 band of small crowded teeth on the under surface of the vomer and 

 on the tongue. The stomach is a rpunded sac, followed by two casca, 

 and along slender intestine almost always enveloped vv'ilh fat. The 

 bladder is long, ample, and simple. The Mormyri are ranked among 

 the best fishes of the Nile. 



One portion of them has a cylindrical muzzle and a long dorsal. (2) 

 A second has a cylindrical muzzle and a short dorsal. (3) 

 It is very probable, as observed by M. Geoffroy, that it is in one 

 of these two subdivisions that the Oxyrynchus of the Egyptians is to 

 be found. 



In a third the snout is short and rounded, and the dorsal short.(4) 

 In a fourth the forehead forms a gibbous projection in front oj" the 

 mouth. (5) 



(1) Mop/uvpoi, the Greek name of a littoral fish variously coloured, probably the 

 Spams mormyrus, L. It was applied by Linnzeus, not very happily, to fresh-wa- 

 ter fishes of a uniform hue. 



(2) The Morm. d' Hasselquist, Geoff. Poiss. du Nil., pi. vi, f. 2; — M. caschive, 

 Hasselq., . 398, which appears to me to differ from the preceding- in several im- 

 portant characters, judging from the description; — the M. oxyrinquej Geoff, pi. 

 vi, f. ], which is the Centriscus niloiicus, Sclm., pi. 30; — M. commune, Forsk., 74, 

 which does not ag;ree with any of the preceding by the description. 



(3) The Morm. de Denderah or anguilloides, L., Geoff, pi. vii, f 2, confounded 

 with the Casckite of Hasselq., by Linnaeus, but which is the Hers^, Sonnini, Voy. en 

 Eg., pi., sxii, f. 1. 



(4) The Morm. de Salheyhe, M. labiatus, Geoff., pi. xxii, f. 1;— the M. de Bel- 

 beys, M. dorsalis. Id., pi. viii, f. 1, which is the Kaschou^, Sonnerat, pi. xxi, f. 3. 



(5) The Morm. bane or 31. cyprino'tdes, L., Geoff., pi. viii, f. 2. N.B. The 

 Nile produces several other unpublished species. 



