32 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



northern Pacific, but none in the African Atlantic, Red Sea, or Indian Ocean. 

 Ten other genera, containing one hundred and fifty-eight species, are common to 

 the warmer latitudes of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, viz. : Plectro- 

 poma, Mesoprion, Polyprion, Centropristis, Priacanthus, Myripristis, Holocentrum, 

 Uranoscopus, Sphyrcena, and Polynemus *. Dules, which we have already men- 

 tioned as an East-Indian fresh-water genus, is not exclusively so, as two species 

 exist in the Caribbean Sea. Pinguipes has one species in the Brazilian Sea, and 

 another in the sea of Chili. Rypticus, confined to the Tropical Atlantic, has one 

 species peculiar to the Brazils, and another common to the Caribbean Sea and 

 Cape Verd Islands. Trachinus has species in the Mediterranean, and also in 

 the European Atlantic as far north as the Cattegat. The remaining genera are 

 either peculiar to a single district of the ocean, or consist of only a solitary species 

 each, and will be mentioned in the subsequent paragraphs. 



We have next to notice a few facts respecting the range of individual spe- 

 cies. It were to be wished that we could throw an additional interest into this 

 inquiry, by pointing out the peculiarities of organization by which certain species 

 are adapted to inhabit a variety of climates, while others thrive in very confined 

 localities only ; but our acquaintance with the habits and anatomy of oceanic fish 

 is by far too slight for such a task. One might be led a priori to imagine, that as 

 the ocean affords, as it were, a high way so easily traversed by the finny tribes, 

 many species would be common to both sides of the Atlantic, yet this is far from 

 being the case. Not one of the percoidese of European seas has hitherto been 

 detected on the North American coasts, and there are but four which cross the 

 Atlantic even in the warmer latitudes. These are Holocentrum longipinne, 

 which has been taken on the coasts of Carolina, the West Indies, and South America, 

 and also off the islands of Ascension and St. Helena : Sphyrcena picuda, which 

 occurs in the Gulf of Mexico, in the sea of Brazil, and at Goree, on the coast of 

 Africa : Polyprion cernuum, which ranges from the Mediterranean to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, crosses to the Rio de la Plata, and is found also at Queen Charlotte's 

 islands in the Pacific : and lastly, Rypticus saponaceus which has been taken at 

 Martinique and among the Cape Verd islands. Two species double Cape Horn, 

 or at least they exist on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of South America, 

 namely, Centropomus undecimalis, which frequents the mouths of rivers in the 

 West Indies, Brazils, and Peru : and Bovichtus diacanihus, which has been taken 

 off Tristan d'Acunha and on the coast of Chili. 



* Polynemus approximans was observed by Mr. Collie on the coast of California. (App. Beechey's Voy., p. 57.) 



