148 



PARADISE POLYNEME. 



several separate processes or articulated rays : these 

 are, in general, much longer and more setaceous 

 than in the Triglae, and, in some species, even 

 exceed the length of the whole body. The species 

 of Polyneme are not very numerous, and are chiefly 

 confined to the v^armer latitudes. 



The Polynemus Paradiseus or Mango-Fish, as it 

 is generally called, v^hich seems to have been one 

 of the first of the genus known to the Europeans, 

 is an inhabitant of the Indian and American seas, 

 and grows to the length of about twelve or fifteen 

 inches : it is a fish of an elegant shape, moderately 

 broad in the middle, and gradually tapering to- 

 wards the tail, which is very deeply forked : the 

 scales are of moderate size, those towards the head 

 and tail smaller than the rest : the thoracic fila- 

 ments are of excessive length, the superior or out-^ 

 ward ones often extending far beyond the tail ; the 

 others gradually shorten, the first or lowermost ex- 

 tending about half the length of the body. The 

 colour of this fish is generally described as yellow, 

 and its popular name of Mango-Fish is supposed 

 to have been given it from that circumstance, as 

 resembling the colour of a ripe Mango. Dr. Bloch 

 however describes his specimen as of a silvery cast, 

 with a tinge of blue on the upper parts : this may 

 have been owing to a change of colour on being 

 kept for a considerable time in spirits : the fila- 

 ments also in Dr. Bloch's specimen seem to have 

 met with some accidental mutilation, since they 

 ^re far short of the length usually represented by 

 other authors. Dr. Russel, in his work on the 



