176 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



is absent in that described by Dr. Russell. The two 

 processes just mentioned conduct us at once to the 

 genus Ceratoptera M. and H., where these appendages 

 assume the form and office of lobed fins, as represented 

 by the same artist {fig. 20. ), the head is completely 



obtuse in front, without any of the lobed appearance 

 seen in the last genus ; while the mouth is at the ter- 

 mination of the muzzle. On this latter account, these 

 remarkable fishes have been justly separated from the 

 true Pterocephali (or the Cephaloptera of Dumeril), 

 where the mouth is on the under side of the head, as in 

 all the other genera. We place JEtobates M. and H. as 

 the last genus, with some hesitation, suspecting that it 

 really possesses this rank in the present division ; for 

 it has every one of the characters of Myliobates, super- 

 added to a caudal sting. But its most remarkable pecu- 

 liarity is the circumstance of the jaws being dissimilar: 

 " the lower one," as Dr. Russell observes on a species 

 he has described, " being arched, narrow, and projec- 

 ing beyond the wider immovable upper jaw: the edges 

 of both are smooth and without teeth." * MM. Muller 



* Coromandel Fishes, vol. i. p. 5. 



