304 



CLASSTFICATIOxV OF FISHES. 



in the annexed cut {fig. 65.) ; and the head is also repre- 



sentedj but of the natural size (fig. 66.). These figures vdU 



convey to the reader 

 a much better idea 

 of this extraordinary 

 creature than any 

 detailed description. 

 The headj but more 

 especially the mouth 

 and teeth, are enor- 

 mously dispropor- 

 tionate to the size of 

 body ; and^ indeed, the latter members are larger than 

 in any other fish yet discovered. There ssems also suf- 

 ficient difi^erence between the species known to Catesby, 

 and the Mediterranean one now figured, to justify us in 

 beheving they are different species : the absence of a 

 terminal spoon-shaped membrane at the tip of the first 

 dorsal ray in the former may be accidental ; but this 

 cannot be said of the difference in the size and proportion 

 of their scales, or the shape of the caudal fin, which is 

 lunate in L. Sloanii, but cleft to the centre of the base in 

 L. Siculus (fig. 65.): in the latter, also, the dorsal fin is 

 inserted much nearer to the pectoral than it is to the ven- 

 tral: but in Sloanii it is just intermediate between the 

 two. These fishes are very rare, and are only seen, like 

 Sternoptyx^Gymnetrus^ and other strange-looking genera, 

 after violent storms, which have agitated the bottom of 

 the sea^ and cast these deUcate fishes upon the beach. In 

 the course of five years we never met with more than 



