322 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



ginating in a great measure from the prevalent custom 

 of assimilating the species peculiar to the Mediterranean 

 with those found in our northern seas. Cuvier, indeed^ 

 being aware that there is one species found in the 

 Mediterranean different from ours (his Phycis furcatus), 

 justly enough supposes that it was the true Blennius 

 Phycis of Linnaeus ; but we have reason to believe that 

 no less than three inhabit the coasts of the south of 

 Europe. Two of these we discovered in Sicily, and 

 shall subsequently describe in detail. One of them, our 

 Phycis longipinnis (fig. 75.), will serve as a typical re- 



presentation of the whole ; and the other, Physis Siculus 

 Sw., will be found in the Appendix. We believe that 

 others from the same seas will be hereafter detected, so 

 soon as the Mediterranean fishes undergo a more rigid 

 comparison with those of the German Ocean, than has 

 hitherto been deemed necessary. 



(270.) The BrosmincE, at present, are represented only 

 by a single genus, of which the Gadus Brosma of Linnaeus 

 forms the type. We have placed this as a represent- 

 ation of one of the principal divisions of the family, 

 because it seems to hold an iritermediate station between 

 Phycis and the next group. The first dorsal or anterior 

 fin here disappears, leaving only one, which begins im- 

 mediately above the pec:oral, and only terminates at 

 the very commencement of the caudal : the ventrals are 

 like those of Lota and Motella, but as fleshy as in 

 Phycis; and there is a single cirrus on the lower jaw. 

 The only species known, or, at least, that has been de- 



