280 ECHENEID^. 



SUBBRACHIAL 



MALACOPTERYGII. ECHENEIDM. 



THE COMMON REMORA. 



Echeneis remora, Sucking-fish, Turton, Brit. Faun. p. 94, sp. 38. 



,, „ Le Remora, Block, pt. v. pi. 172. 



,, ,, ,, CuviER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 347. 



„ ,, Mediterranean Remora, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. App, 



p. 524. 

 „ „ Common Remora, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 473, sp. 162. 



Generic Characters. — Body elongated, covered with very small scales ; a 

 single dorsal fin placed opposite the anal ; the head very flat, covered with an 

 oval disk formed by numerous transverse cartilaginous plates, the edges of 

 which are directed backward ; the mouth wide, with numerous small recurved 

 teeth on both jaws, the tongue, and the vomer. 



Dr. Turton in his British Fauna includes this species 

 of Sucking-fish, having taken a specimen himself at Swansea 

 from the back of a Codfish in the summer of 1806. 



The species of this singular family are not numerous : 

 Cuvier enumerates but four that are as yet made known, and 

 another large West Indian one has been more recently de- 

 scribed. They are immediately recognized by the flattened, 



