194* CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



cipal divisions or genera ; and these include several 

 distinct modifications of form, which take the rank of 

 sub- genera. The great number of species, however, 

 which swarm in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, will con- 

 siderably augment these minor groups, when their 

 peculiarities of structure are better understood.* The 

 two first, or typical genera, are Batistes proper, and 

 Capriscus, a name employed by Willughby and the 

 old writers to designate some of these fishes, and which 

 will be preferable, on that account, to a new one of our 

 own : both these are distinguished by having the body 

 covered with large diamond-shaped divisions, scored, re- 

 sembling network, separated from each other by a suture, 

 as if the hard skin had been regularly scored : hence 

 their bodies may be termed mailed and tessellated. In 

 Batistes, the tail is armed with three or more rows of 

 acute prickles, or lancets, which are entirely wanting in 

 Capriscus (C. velata, jig. 28.) : each of these, again, 



contain several sub-genera, readily distinguished in the 

 different forms observed in the first dorsal and the caudal 

 fins, and in the structure of the pelvis. t The aberrant 

 genera, as usual, contain fewer variations of form ; all 

 three, however, are at once separated from the typical 

 groups by the scale-like reticulations on their body, 



* Having long prosecuted, at intervals, a particular analysis of this fa- 

 mily, with drawings of all the species we can procure, we beg to solicit 

 from those of our readers who have the means of assisting us, preserved 

 specimens (either dried or in spirits; ; and, more especially, the loan of co- 

 loured sketches or drawings made from the life : we make the same request 

 in regard to the chetodons, and the silures {Siluridce). 



f The arrangement of M. Cuvier, founded upon the number of rows of 

 ancets on the sides of the tail, is obviously artificial, and otherwise ob- 

 ectionable, particularly as the above characters are entirely overlooked. 



