X 



tion between the soft-rayed Blennides, and the spine- 

 rayed order, or the Acanthopteryges, The most important 

 character they possess, to use the words of our author, 

 '^ is in having a part of the superior pharyngeals divided 

 into small laminae, more or less numerous ; which form, 

 by their frill-like undulations, intercepting cells, in 

 which water can remain, flow upon, and moisten the 

 gills when the fish is on dry land." Hence it is that 

 they are enabled to crawl from the rivulets and pools, 

 wherein they usually live, and either go to others, or hide 

 themselves in hollow banks, &c., most probably during 

 the dry season : this singular faculty was known to the 

 ancients ; while the common Hindoos believe that these 

 fishes fall from the clouds. As we shall enter more at 

 large upon this subject in one of our future volumes, we 

 shall at present merely advert to the external characters 

 of these fishes : nearly all of them have the stomach 

 remarkably short ; and the tail, in consequence, very 

 long : the ventral fins are remarkably developed ; that 

 is to say, not so much in size as in singularity ; for one 

 or two of the rays are very long and filiform, while the 

 rest are partially or entirely obsolete. Macropodus has 

 the largest caudal fin, in proportion to its size, of any 

 fish hitherto discovered ; while Ophiocephalus, with a long 

 eel-like and cylindrical body, has all the dorsal rays 

 flexible, like those of the Blennides, but they are 

 branched. In all these characters the reader will not fail 

 to perceive a union of those which separately distinguish 

 the perches, the blennies, and the eels ; all being differ- 

 ently combined in a group of fish, which is related to 

 the two first by affinity, and to the latter by analogy. 

 On this theory, therefore, all the variations in the genera 

 of the SpirohranchidcB can not only be reconciled, but 

 explained in the most satisfactory manner ; while the 

 whole form a group representing the order Apodes, in 

 the great circle of the Acanthopteryges, and connect- 

 ing it to the order of Blennides. To this point, there- 

 fore, we shall again return, after tracing the different 

 tribes which intervene between the Macroleptes and 

 the Blennides. 



