222 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



known to him, the branchial apertures are even more 

 beneath the neck than in Dalophis, although the fins are 

 like those of Murcena. These instances, taken almost 

 at random, will be sufficient to show how very little is 

 yet known of the European genera and sub-genera 01 

 this order, and may stimulate foreign ichthyologists to 

 explore more distant seas, where numerous others will, 

 no doubt, be discovered. 



(195.) The Synbranclndce , or serpent eels, are all 

 marine, and numerous species are scattered in all the 

 temperate and tropical latitudes : excepting the Petro- 

 myzonidce : they are the least organised, as fish, of any 

 in the order, for some of the fins, exclusive of the ventral, 

 are often wanting ; and in Ccecilia Lac. all these organs 

 of motion totally disappear. The species contained in 

 this division, hitherto determined, are few ; but we be- 

 lieve very many have been overlooked, more especially 

 in the Rtgne Animal, where we find no notice taken of 

 those discovered on the Sicilian coast by professor Ra- 

 finesque, who has characterised several excellent sub- 

 genera, to be found in our synopsis. 



(196.) The Sternarchida are so named from the 

 body being so excessively short that the vent is close to 

 the sternum. Nevertheless they are very long eel-shaped 

 fishes, although the body is more or less compressed; 

 sometimes (as in Campus) covered with visible scales, 

 and having altogether something of the appearance of 

 ordinary fishes. In all these the spiracles are lateral, and 

 they all exhibit a tendency to blend into the acanthopte- 

 rygious, or spine-rayed order. The famous Gymnotus 

 electricus, or electric eel of South America, seems to 

 belong to this division, which (if its analogies are ex- I 

 amined ) will be found to represent the torpedos in the 

 circle of the Raidce, and the electric silures in that of 

 the Siluridte. All the species hitherto known — and they 

 are but very few — occur out of the European range, ex- I 

 cept, indeed, that curious genus Leptocephahis, which 

 clearly represents, in this family, that cf Amphioxus in 

 the next. 



