CLUPEINiE. 



CHIROCENTRUS. 



HYODON. 



289 



the pikes : it is, in short, by these genera that we con- 

 ceive the sub-families of the ClupeincR and the Esocince 

 are united ; they are herrings in their shape and general 

 aspect, but pike in the position of their dorsals, and 

 almost in the armature of their mouth. Chirocentrus 

 is represented by some few fishes found in the East 

 Indies : one of these is particularly described and figured 

 by Russell, under the name of Wallah {Chirocentrus 

 Russellii Sw.). According to this author, it has a long 

 knife- like body, which is entirely destitute of scales ; 

 the mouth is large, very oblique, and with the lower 

 jaw longest; in the upper jaw are four long, projecting, 

 lanceolate teeth, with many small marginal ones behind ; 

 in the under jaw they are long, distant, and reflected; the 

 tongue is small, ovate, and smooth*; the palate is also 

 smooth : in others the tongue, according to Cuvier, is 

 " bristled with pectiniform teeth." The body of both 

 these is much lengthened ; the belly sharp, but not ser- 

 rated; the dorsal close to the caudal; and the ventrals 

 extremely small. 



(245.) The genus Hyodon (H. clodalis Le Sueur, fig. 6l .) 



approximates to the last by having the dorsal situated 

 towards the caudal ; but the form is more like that of the 



* Cuvier cites this very description of Russell's Wallah for the " single 

 species that is known" of this type; the teeth of which he describes as 

 follows : " The intermaxillaries and maxiUaries are both furnished, as well 

 as the lower jaw, with a range of strong conical teeth ; two of which, in 

 the middle of the upper range, and all below, are of extraordinary length : 

 the tongue and branchial arches are bristled with pectiniform teeth." It 

 is clearly impossible that this can be the species described by Russell, which 

 has the " tongue smooth." It is more than probable, also, that the other 

 synonyms of Cuvier refer to different species, and that several, in short, 

 exist in the Indian seas. It is such variations as these, in the teeth of fishes, 

 which show how often they are merely specific — not generic — characters. 



VOL. I. 



U 



