ANALOGIES OF THE GYMNETRES. 51 



seems, never theless_, some slight resemblance between 

 them; though few, we apprehend, will join in the belief 

 of their actual affinity. It appears, however, that, on 

 comparing our distribution of the GymnetridcE and the 

 Trachypteridce, we find that between the genera yet 

 discovered of the first there is, in fact, a series of analo- 

 gies to those of the second ; a circumstance, we confess, 

 we should not liave discovered, but from a desire of 

 ascertaining the precise situation of Cepola, which so 

 beautifully connects the typical riband fish with the 

 more jobust Ophidians. We may look, therefore, to 

 the analogies of the two families as pretty certain. 



The Gymnetrid^ and the Trachypterid^. 



Genera of the - , . Genera of the 



GymnetridcE. Analogies. Trachypterid,e. 



Gymnetrus Bl. [ ^ ^miuf " '''* '^' '"''''^^"* ^°" '] Argicthius Raf. 



ir- I.- ji. o r Caudal fin more or less turned) T^.„^i,„^t^„„, r'^,. 



Xtphicthes S-vf. < upwards ilrachypterus Gou. 



J^emotkems Raf. {'^':^SiliTi.''otXt^ ^^^'^^^P^^ ^^'- 



GyTTmogasier Brun. ? * * * 



T I. . ^- f" Snout short; mouth cleft ob- 7 y-, , ▼• 



Lopkotes Gio ^ liquely* :" ventral finsperfect. j ^^^"^^ -^i""- 



The imperfection of this table, in the omission of the 

 type which should represent Gymnogaster, is not to be 

 wondered at : so little attention, in fact, has been be- 

 stowed upon this most interesting tribe, and they are 

 so difficult to be determined, even in a fresh state, that 

 not one half of the genera or species were known even to 

 M. Cuvier t^ who, not having seen them, almost dis- 



* Cuvier. 



f In a note appended to the genus Gymnetrus, M. Cuvier, after quoting 

 numerous authors who have alluded to or described the different forms of 

 the Gymnetes, concludes by observing, " All these fishes hardly differ in 

 species, and not in the least as to genus." — Griff. Cuv. pi. 210. This hasty 

 opinion, however, has, in part, been retracted by his subsequently adopting 

 one genus [Trachypterus , which he appears to have seen. Caution and 

 scepticism, in regarding the writings of others, may thus be carried beyond 

 all reasonable hounds, more particularly when not sanctioned by actual 

 knowledge of what we reject. In the present case we beheve that not one 

 tenth of these fishes have yet been discovered. "We have adopted all the 

 species of Rafinesque, for some, indeed, were actually communicated to 

 him by us in 1815. 



E 2 



