262 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



but we cannot discover any relation it bears to the 

 herrings, — even in a solitary character: its depressed 

 head, large mouthy and strong teeth, and even some- 

 thing in the position of its fins, would lead us, in the 

 first instance, to arrange it among the pikes (Esocince) ; 

 its relation, however, to Erythrinus appears, upon the 

 whole, more close ; and as we have placed this latter 

 genus as an aberrant form in the circle of the Cyprina, 

 so do we arrange Sudis as the connecting link between 

 the salmons and the carps. Whether this is its true si- 

 tuation in nature, it is impossible, in the present state 

 of things, to determine ; but it appears much more na- 

 tural (when we consider its resemblance to Erythrinus, 

 and of this latter to Gonorynchus) than to associate it with 

 the herrings. The Sudis gigas(fig. 55.) is the largest 



of four or five species which seem to be distributed in 

 the fresh waters of America and of Africa. The typical 

 form to which it shows the nearest approximation is 

 clearly the anguilliform ; and as we have no genus in 

 the primary divisions of the Salmon idee which represents 

 those fishes, we confess that this consideration has ma- 

 terially influenced us in giving this station to Sudis. 

 The scales are very large, strong, thick, and bony : the 

 bones of the head are hard, naked, and rough : in some 

 the muzzle is oblong, and in others shorter; while that 

 of S. gigas is evidently depressed. In S. JYiloticus, ac- 

 cording to Ehrenberg, there is " a singular funnel spi- 

 rally convoluted, which adheres to the third gill," which 

 Cuvier, with much probability, conjectures is analogous 

 to those which he has so ably and beautifully investigated 

 in the genera Anabas, Ophiocephalus, &c. We have 

 not yet come to our exposition of the spine-rayed order 

 (Acanthopteryges), and therefore any partial exposition 

 of its analogical characters would be premature ; but if 



