260 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



rather attenuated at their tips, when viewed laterally, 

 are nevertheless considerably wider above ; but they are 

 not lengthened : both are equal, and armed with sharp 

 slender teeth of unequal sizes. In these fishes, the first 

 dorsal is still further removed from the head than in 

 Xiphostoma, and the upper jaw is more angulated : the 

 appearance of all these fish reminds us so much of pikes, 

 that they may be termed pike-salmon : but few species 

 are known, and they all appear to inhabit the tropics of 

 the Old World. 



(228.) The genus Sternoptyx is one of the most sin- 

 gular forms in this or any other order, and yet it is by 

 no means so anomalous as its first aspect might tempt 

 us to believe. Let the reader only imagine a highly 

 exaggerated figure of Gasteropelicus, and he will have 

 a very good notion of the general shape of these sin- 

 gular fishes. We are not aware of any other figures of 

 the two species already described, than those which are 

 to be found in most works, copied from Hermann ; and 

 on this account we regret the more that several speci- 

 mens of two other new species we discovered in the 

 Mediterranean, and deposited in the British Museum, 

 are now no longer in existence : as we depended upon 

 these for subsequent descriptions and drawings, we are 

 compelled partly to transcribe what Cuvier has said of 

 the species known to inhabit the warm parts of the 

 American coasts, for hitherto no one appears to have 

 detected them in the ^Mediterranean. The annexed cut 



(^^.54.),copiedfrom 

 the rude figure of 

 Hermann, will tend 

 to elucidate the fol- 

 lowing anatomical 

 description given by 

 Cuvier. These fishes, 

 he observes, have a 

 very deep and considerably compressed body, with the 

 mouth directed upwards : the humerals form a sharp 

 ridge in front, terminated below by a small spine ; the 



