78 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



two tribes of Canthileptes and Blennides; all being car- 

 tilagiform or fissirostral types.* 



(81.) The reasons^ however, which have guided us in 

 not yet venturing to name the sub-genera of Labrisomus 

 and Clinus, are not applicable to Blennius and Salarias, 

 which are the two typical genera of the Blennince, and 

 these we shall now consider. Four of the sub-genera of 

 Blennius have already been determined, and many species 

 described, by M. Valenciennes : it remains only for us to 

 designate that of Blennitrachus, which, as intervening 

 between Chasmodes and Blennichis, completes the circle 

 of this genus, and gives us a uniform representation of all 

 the groups just enumerated. This type is furnished by 

 the Pholis quadrifasciatus of Woodf ; which M.Valen- 

 ciennes, with some hesitation, admits into his genus 

 Chasmodes, observing that it differs m having canine 

 teeth, and in the dorsal and anal fins not being joined 

 to the caudal : the original description, however, fur- 

 nishes us mth another character of equal importance, 

 that of the lower jaw being longest : now this is pre- 

 cisely the character wanted to show its relation to Clini- 

 trachus, Cristiceps, Cirriharhus, and all other groups, 

 large or small, which represent Trachinus and the Chiro- 

 nectidcp. A glance at the figure of this singular fish, 

 as figured in another part of our volume, which seems 

 to be American, will satisfy the ichthyologist on this 

 point: the head, indeed, is perfectly analogous, but the 

 dorsal fin is not, to Clinitrachus. 



(82.) The genus Salarias of M. Cuvier forms 

 another typical group of the BlennincE, and likewise 

 contains its subordinate types, only one of which has been 

 named. The whole form a singular collection of small 

 fishes having the general form of the common blennies, 

 but characterised by a great peculiarity in their teeth : 

 these are particularly slender, very numerous, and so 

 slightly fixed at their roots, that, to use M. Cuvier's ex- 



• Corresponding to the aquatic type among quadrupeds and the nata- 

 torial division of birds : all ha\ing unusually large heads, 

 t Amer. Trans, iv. 282. pi. 17. lig. 1. 



