318 



CLASSIFICATION - OF FISHES. 



(Gadus furcatus Sw.,/^. 71-) we discovered in Sicily, 

 the tail is forked : they have, moreover, a short cirrus, 

 or barbel, at the point of the lower jaw ; but this is 



wanting in the next genus, Merlangus Raf., although, 

 in every other respect, the structure is the same. The 

 next type we have named Tilesia, after its first de- 

 scribe^ professor Tilesius, well known as one of the 

 most eminent naturalists that Russia has produced. 

 There is something so peculiar in the elongated form of 

 the Gadus gracilis of this author *, joined to the 

 truncated form of the caudal fin, that we venture for 

 the present to keep it distinct from Gadus, with which, 

 however, it agrees in having a barbel and three dorsal 

 fins ; but these latter are represented as all of the same 

 size, — a proportion not observable in any other of 

 the cods, where the first dorsal is always higher and 

 shorter than either the second or third : the trunc- 

 ated or slightly rounded tail of this fish prepares us for 

 Lepidioit Sw., represented by a most singular species of 

 cod, described as very rare in the Mediterranean by 

 Risso, who has likewise given a rude figure of it : in 

 this the dorsal fins are only two ; and the two anal fins 

 are so much united, that they appear almost as one 

 that is deeply cleft. Risso describes it, however, as a 

 Gadus, which, in all other respects, it resembles. It is 

 a remarkable circumstance, that, of the two species he 



* Icones et Deserip. Piscium et Vermium Zoop. Camtschaticorum Pe- 

 tropoli, 1810. This rare work is in the library of the Linnsean Society. 



