MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 239 



BuTiRiNUs, Commers. 



The jaws formed like those of a Herringj the body round and elon- 

 gated, as in Elops and Megalops, and the prominent snout of an An- 

 chovy. The mouth is slightly cleft, small crowded teeth in the jaws, 

 and twelve or thirteen branchial rays; particularly distinguished by 

 rounded, closely set teeth on the tongue, vomer, and palatines. From 

 both Oceans. 



The Elopes and Butirini are beautiful, silvery fishes, with numer- 

 ous bones and caeca, that attain a considerable size.(l) 



Chirocentrus, Cuv. 



The edge of the upper jaw, as in the Herring, formed by the inter- 

 maxillaries, and the sides by the maxillaries, which are united with 

 them, both, together with the lower jaw, being furnished with a row 

 of stout conical teeth, the two middle anterior upper ones of which, 

 as well as all those of the lower jaw, are of extraordinary length- 

 The tongue and branchial arches are bristled with teeth resembling 

 those of a card, but there are none on the palate or vomer. There 

 are seven or eight rays in the branchiae, the external ones very broad. 

 Above and beneath each pectoral is a long, membranous, and point- 

 ed scale, and the pectoral rays are very hard; the body is elongated, 

 compressed, and trenchant, but not dentated beneath; the ventrals 

 are extremely small, and the dorsal is shorter than the anal, oppo- 

 site to which it is placed. The stomach is a long, slender, and 

 pointed sac, the pylorus is near the cardia, and the natatory bladder 

 lonsr and narrow. I find no caeca. 



the Mugil salmoneus of Forster, Bl., Schn., p. 121; although he gives it but four 

 branchial rays, I have ascertained this by the figure. It is also the Jinagow, Russ., 

 179, and the Synode chinois, Lacep., V, x, 1. The American Elops is the Mugil 

 appendiculatus of Bosc, or the Mugilomore Aime-Caroline, Lacep., V, 398; the 

 Pounder, Sloane, Jam., II, p. 250, f. 1. The Argentina Carolina, L., is also the 

 same fish, although he quotes but a single bad figure, Catesb., II, xxiv; but the 

 Saurus maximus, Sloane, II, pi. 251, 1, usually cited as synonymous with the 

 Elops, is of a totally different genus. It is the Esox syiiodus, L., Synode fasc^, 

 Lacep., or, what is the same thing, one of our Sauri that had lost its adipose fin- 

 (1) The But. banana, Commers., Lacep., V, 45, which is also his Synode re- 

 nard. Id., V, pi. viii, f. 2, or Esox vulpes, L., Catesb., II, i, 2, cop. Encycl., 294, 

 is a fish found on the Atlantic Coast of America, the same as the Ubarana of 

 Marcgi*., Brazil, 154, or Clupea brasiliensis, Bl., Schn.; as the Amia of Brown; as 

 the Jilbula gonorynchus, BL, Schn., p. 432, or Mbula Plumieri, Id. pi. 86; as 

 the Clupee macrocephak, Lacep., V, xiv, 1, and as the Macabi, Parra, pi. 35, f. 4, 

 or Amia immaculata, Bl., Schn., 451. Spix has two of them, pi. xxiii, 2, and 

 xxiv. — The Butiriuusof India is the Argentina glossodonta, Forsk., or Argentine 



