MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 231 



having- articiilated but simple rays, occupying a great part of the back, with 

 a second behind the vent, and with a third which is 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. 



ORDER V. 



LOPHOBRANCHII(l). 



All the fishes of which we have hitherto spoken, have not only a 

 bony or fibrous skeleton, and complete and free jaws, but their 

 branchiae are uniformly composed of laminse, or are pectiniform. 

 In this order, however, we likewise find the jaws free and complete; 

 but it is eminently distinguished by the gills, which, instead of 

 resembling, as usual, the teeth of a comb, are divided into small 

 round tufts, arranged in pairs along the branchial arches, a struc- 

 ture of which no other fishes present any example. They are 

 enclosed beneath a large operculum, tied down on all sides by a 

 membrane which leaves only a single small orifice for the exit of the 

 water, and exhibiting in its thickness only vestiges of rays. These 

 fishes are also recognized by the scutellated plates of mail which 

 cover their body, and usually render it angular. They are generally 

 small, and almost without flesh. 



Syngnathus, Lin.(2) 

 The Syngnathi constitute a numerous genus characterized by a tubular 

 snout, formed, like that of the Fistularidse, by the prolongation of the 

 ethmoid, vomer, tympanals, preopercula, subopercula, &c., and terminated 

 by an ordinary mouth, but one that is cleft almost vertically on its extremity. 

 The respiratory aperture is near the nape; and the ventrals are wanting. 

 There is a peculiarity in the production of these fishes, whose ova shp into 

 a pouch formed by an inflation of the skin and are hatched there; this pouch, 

 in some, is situated under the abdomen, and in others under the base of the 

 tail; it spUts spontaneously for the passage of the fry. 



(1) Tufted gills. 



(2) From a-uv and yva^oc (united jaws), a name composed by Artedi, who 

 thought that the tube of the snout of these fishes was formed by the union 

 of their jaws. 



