328 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



flexible substance, somewhat resembling whalebone ; and 

 before the prickle can penetrate an enemy, this flexible 

 point, which supports part of the membrane, must be 

 broken. Although, therefore, it is probable, that in case 

 of such accidents, the flexible part may be soon reunited 

 to the prickle, yet it is not likely that the animal should 

 have recourse to the use of such a weapon, except in 

 emergency, and perhaps never as a weapon of attack."* 

 To us, however, this subject appears in a different light. 

 From observations made upon the American Siluridce, it 

 appears, that although these rigid spines, in one sense, 

 are terminated by a flexible process, yet that this pro- 

 cess is more an additional appendage to the spine, than 

 an integral part thereof; it is, in fact, so articulated, 

 that it can be bent sufficiently back, and that without 

 any injury, to admit the spine being used as a pow- 

 erful weapon of offence, — the soft appendage by 

 which it is surmounted, returning again to its usual 

 position so soon as the spine is disengaged from any 

 substance it has penetrated. This soft part of the ray, 

 in fact, might, with more propriety, be termed as much 

 articulated to the spined or bony part, as if it moved upon 

 a spring : it may be easily pressed backward, but not 

 forward ; and in every position it leaves the attenuated 

 point of the spine itself completely free. To illustrate 

 this very singular peculiarity, which does not hitherto 

 appear to have been noticed, we annex the accompanying 

 sketches of the dorsal (a) and pectoral (c) fins of our new 

 genus Breviceps ; that at a (Jig. 77.) showing the 

 spine in a state of repose ; while b represents it with 

 its soft and articulated termination bent backwards, 

 leaving the point of the spine entirely naked. We 

 cannot say how far this structure is prevalent among 

 those Sihiridw we have not personally examined ; but 

 there is every probability that it may be general. Be- 

 sides, if we take a more general view of the question, 

 there is nothing in nature to make us believe that the 



* Gangetic Fishes, p. 13ft 



