84 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



many of them inhabitants of the Indian Ocean. They have a single dorsal with 

 many basal spines, the anterior ones sometimes very tall, a compressed body, a 

 very protractile muzzle, and the rims of the back and belly denticulated. The 

 genus Lampris of Retzius, or Chrysotosus of Lacepede, has also only a single 

 dorsal, with one small spine at the base of its very high anterior rays. The ven- 

 trals have ten very long rays, and the lobes of the caudal are also greatly elongated, 

 but all these prolonged fins wear down with age. The sides of the tail are keeled. 

 The opdh, the only known species, is an inhabitant of the North Sea. Sir George 

 Mackenzie informs us, that it frequents the Iceland seas ; and if Cuvier's conjec- 

 ture, alluded to in a preceding page, be correct, it is an occasional visiter of the 

 Greenland coast. Pennant states that it has been taken at Newfoundland ; and 

 Dr. J. V. C. Smith enumerates it among the fish of Massachusetts. It has been 

 several times driven by storms upon the shores of Great Britain, and we have given 

 several references to authors who have noticed it *. Their descriptions, however, 

 differ in so many particulars, that it excites a doubt whether they had all the same 

 species under examination. Sir Robert Sibbald's figure, which is the earliest, has 

 the high commencement of the dorsal separated from the lower part of the fin by a 

 small space ; and Pennant's differs in several respects from that in Griffith's 

 Cuvier. The colours also vary with the describer. 



In the Regne Animal the body is said to be spotted with white, and the fins to be red. 

 Sir Robert Sibbald calls the spots golden. Dr. Mortimer states the back to be dark blue or 

 violet, and, as well as the bright green sides, to be dotted all over with oblong white spots ; 

 the jaws pale red; the nose, gills, and belly silvery; and all the fins bright scarlet. One 

 caught in Torbay is described by Pennant's correspondent as being in general of a vivid 

 transparent scarlet, varnished over with burnished gold, and bespangled with oval silver spots 

 of various sizes. Mr. Harrison, of Newcastle, speaking of another which was cast upon the 

 sands at Blyth, says " all the fins are of a fine scarlet, but the colours and beauty of the rest 

 of the body, which is smooth and covered with almost imperceptible scales, beggars all 

 description ; the upper part being a bright green, variegated with whitish spots, and enriched 

 with a shining golden hue, like the splendor of a peacock's feather ; this by degrees vanishes 

 in a bright silvery tint, and near the belly the gold again predominates in a lighter ground 

 than on the back." (Br. Zool.) This fish attains a great size ; the one mentioned above, as 

 being taken in Torbay, was four feet and a half long, two feet and a quarter high, but only 

 four inches thick : it weighed one hundred and forty pounds. 



Fins.— Br. 6 ; P. 21 ; V. 18 ; A. 36 ; C. 19 ; D. 14/48. (Schneider.) 

 Br. 6; P. 16; V. 16; A. 36; C. 26; D. 56. (Retzius.) 



* The following mav be added from the Regne Animal. Zeus regiiis, Bonnat. Enc. Ichthyol., f. 155. Zeus imperi- 

 alism Suaw. Nat. Misc., No. 140. Z. luna, Gmei.. Scomber pelagicus, Gunner, Mem. de Dronih., iv., xii., 1. Le Cryso- 

 tose lime, Lacep., iv., ix., 3. Le Poisson delune, Duhamel, Sect, iv., pi, vi., f. 5. 



