318 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



{Gadus furcatus iivr., fig. 71-) we discovered in Sicily, 

 the tail is forked : they have, moreover, a short cirrus, 

 or barbel, at the point of the lower jaw ; but this is 



«2^^ 



wanting in the next genus, Merlangus Raf., although, 

 in every other respect, the structure is the same. The 

 next type we have named Tilesia, after its first de- 

 scriber, professor Tilesius, well known as one of the 

 most eminent naturalists that Russia has produced. 

 There is something so pecuHar in the elongated form of 

 the Gadus gracilis^ of this author *, joined to the 

 truncated form of the caudal fin, that we venture for 

 the present to keep it distinct from Gadus, with which, 

 however, it agrees in having a barbel and three dorsal 

 fins ; but these latter are represented as all of the same 

 size, — a proportion not observable in any other of 

 the cods, where the first dorsal is always higher and 

 shorter than either the second or third : the trunc- 

 ated or slightly rounded tail of this fish prepares us for 

 Lepidion Sw., represented by a most singular species of 

 cod, described as very rare in the Mediterranean by 

 Risso, who has likewise given a rude figure of it : in 

 this the dorsal fins are only two ; and the two anal fins 

 are so much united, that they appear almost as one 

 that is deeply cleft. Risso describes it, however, as a 

 Gadus, which, in all other respects, it resembles. It is 

 a remarkable circumstance, that, of the two species he 



* Icones et Descrip. Piscium et Vermium Zoop. Camtschaticorum Pe- 

 tropoli, 1810. This rare work is in the library of the Linnsan Society. 



