MORMYRUS. MORMYRUS. 



Generic Characte7\ 



Rostrum productum : Os 



terminale. 

 Denies plures, emarginati. 

 Apertura linearis, absque 



operculo. 

 Membr: branch: uniradiata. 

 Corpus squamosum. 



Snout produced : Mouth 



terminal. 

 Teeth, several, emarginated. 

 Aperture without gill-cover. 



Gill^membrane single-rayed, 

 Bocty scaly. 



The genus Mormyrus, hitherto but obscurely 

 understood, and differently arranged by different 

 ichthyologists, has been lately examined with a 

 greater degree of attention by Mons\ Geoffroy, 

 who has increased the number of species from three 

 (as stated in the Gmelinian edition of the Systema 

 Naturae), to nine. Mr. Geoffroy ol3serves that the 

 body is compressed, and that the structure of the 

 tail is unusual, being of a considerable length, and 

 of a subcylindric and inflated appearance, on ac- 

 count of its containing the glands from which th« 

 oily matter along the lateral line is secreted: he 

 also observes that the stomach is strongly muscular ; 

 that the ovarium is single ; and that the swimming- 

 bladder is almost the length of the abdomen. 



