MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 265 



0. blacodes, Schn., 484.(1) From the South Seas; a very 

 large rose-coloured species, spotted with brown. 



FlERASFER, CuV. 



No cirri, and the dorsal so thin that it seems to be a mere fold of 

 the skin; the natatory bladder supported by two bones only, the 

 middle one beint,' wantin.Q;. 



One species is found in the Mediterranean, — Ophidium im- 

 berbe, L.,(2) whose teeth are small and crowded, and another, — 

 Oph. dentatum, Cuv., which has two hooked teeth in each jaw. 

 They are very small fishes. 



Ammodytes, Lin. 



An elongated body like that of the preceding fishes, provided with 

 a fin, having articulated but simple rays, occupying a great part of 

 the back, with a second behind the anus, and with a third, whichi s 

 forked, at the end of the tail; these three fins, however, are separated 

 by free spaces. The snout is acute; the upper jaw susceptible of 

 extension, and the lower one, when at rest, longer than the other. 

 The stomach of these fishes is fleshy and pointed; they have neither 

 caeca nor natatory bladder, and they live in the sand, whence they 

 are taken after the tide has ebbed. 



Two species are found on the coast of France which were long 

 confounded under the common name of Ammodytes tobianus, L., 

 but which have lately been distinguished.(3) They are: 



j1. tobianus, Bl., 75, 2; Ray., I; Synop., Ill, f. 12. The lower 

 jaw most pointed; the maxillaries longest; pedicles of the in- 

 termaxillaries very short; the dorsal commencing opposite to 

 the end of the pectorals; and 



A. lancea, Cuv. Penn. Brit. Zool. pi. xxv, f. 66. The max- 



(1) Add the Ophidium barbatum, Mitch., I, f. 2, which appears to be a distinct 

 species. 



(2) It is the Gymnotus acus, Gm., and the Notoptere fontanes, Risso, Ed. I, pi. 

 iv, f. 11. 



With the Ophidium imberbe of the northern Icthyologists, such as Schonefeldt, 

 Montag-., Werner. Soc. I, pi. ii, f. 2, and the Ophidium viride, Fab., Faun. Groenl. 

 148, I am unacquainted; I believe them, however, to be allied to the Eels. 



The Ophidium ocellatum, Tiles., M^m. Ac. Petersb., lU, pi. 180, iii, 27, seems 

 to me to approach the GunneUi. 



(3) It is to M. Lesauvage, a learned physician of Normandy, that we owe this 

 distinction, but he has transposed the name of tobianus. See the Bullet, des So. 

 Sept. 1824, p. 141. There remains to be ascertained whether the Ammodyta 

 eicerellus, Kafin., Caratt., pi. ix, f. 4, differs from the tobianus. 



Vol. II.— 2 I 



