43 8 broussonet’s Account of 
Enchelyopus , which is indeed not a good family, face it com- 
prehends the genera of Gymnotus , Anarrhkhas , Cepola , Blen- 
nius , Cobh is, &c. 
linne in his defcription of the Ophidhim barbatum fays, 
that its whole body is covered with oblong fpots, without any 
regular direction. Dr. gouan, in his defcription of the genus- 
of the Opbidium , does not mention the fcales ; but gives the 
fpots as a generic character. The laft author who- has men- 
tioned thefe fpots, and given a defcription of this fifh, is Mr. 
B run niche in his Ichthyologia MaJJUienfis. 
Having adduced the various opinion-s of the writers on theQy/h- 
dium, and endeavoured to reconcile their fentiments, we now pro- 
ceed to give the defcription of this fhh, which is fo very remarkable- 
for its fingularities. The genus of Ophidium has the following- 
principal characters, viz. the body long ; the fins of the back, 
tail, and anus, confounded in one; no fin on the under part of- 
the body ; and the eyes covered by the common Ikin. There- 
are befides many other characters which it is needlefs to obferve- 
here, fince I intend not to defcribe all the fpecies of the genus, 
but only to mention them. The firft fpecies (which is the 
fpecies of which we are treating)' is diftinguifhed by its cirri* 
The fecond differs from the former not only by the abfence of 
the cirri, but alfo by many other marks, artedb, in his 
account of this fpecies, has adopted the fynonymy of schone- 
velde, who defcribes a fhh under the name of Ophidian irn- 
berbe fiavum but this fifh, which is the Blennius gunnellus 
linn, is certainly very different from the Ophidian imberbe , 
linn, the rays of its dorfal fin being prickly ; which circum- 
ftance perhaps induced linne to place the Ophidium among 
the Acanthopterygii in the firff editions of his Syflema, in which 
he followed the claffification of artedl Perhaps, for the 
fame 
