432 COLONEL MONTAGU ON NEW AND RARE 



is only more evident in Raia Radiata, in conse- 

 quence of the superior size of the spines. 



Apodal. 



ZipJiotkeca tetradens. 



Wernerian Memoirs, i. p. 82. tab. 2, 3. 

 Vandellius lusitanicus. Shaw, Zool. iv. p. 199? 



At the time I submitted an account of this fish 

 to the Wernerian Society, I was not aware that 

 Dr Shaw had described a species in his General 

 Zoology, which so greatly resembles it, as to in- 

 duce me to suspect it is actually the same, al- 

 though he has placed it in the Thoracic order. 

 This circumstance caused the obscurity of Van- 

 dellius lusitanicus, as no one could have expected 

 to have found an Apodal fish placed in that di- 

 vision. How that naturalist could have fallen in- 

 to such an error, I cannot conceive, unless he con- 

 sidered the pair of ventral scales as rudiments of 

 those fins, or what is commonly attached to the 

 base of the ventral fins of some fishes, as may be 

 observed in many Spari. It is the more extra- 

 ordinary, as the description, it seems, was taken 

 from a specimen in the British Museum, which 

 was in high preservation, and yet no mention is 

 made of these ventral scales, nor of ventral fins, 

 although all the other fins are described. If then, 

 it is the same species as the Ziphotheca tetradens, 



