Dr. broussonet’s * Account ; cf y &cc. 437 
with a reference to pliny. In the figure of bellonius the 
cirri are very ill reprefented, and the whole fifh appears with- 
out any fpots, whereas in the plate of rondeletius it is 
covered with oblong fpots. This remarkable difference be- 
tween the figures of thefe authors was Sufficient to determine 
gesnerus, and others who have written fince their time, and 
who are to be confidered rather as compilers than authors, to 
take the fifh described by bellonius to be a different fpecies 
from that of rondeletius. 
. ' lv u i : • x *./ % .... 
Willoughby, who is the firft ichthyologist who has -given us 
any good defcription of fifh, treats largely of the Op hi alum ; and 
in his account defcribes the fcales, which ar^, as we fhall here- 
after explain, oblong, diftinft, and difpofed without any regular 
order. This defcription was fufficient to afcertain, that the 
difference between the figures arofe from rondeletius hav- 
ing drawn the fcales omitted by bellonius : yet the authors 
who wrote immediately after Willoughby, and particularly 
ray in his Synopfis, follow gesnerus, in maintaining two 
different fpecies of cirrata Ophidia , one with, the other with- 
out, fpots. 
ARTEdi did not take notice of the fpots; he defcribes the 
fifh in a germs to which he gives the name of Ophidian , and 
places that genus among the Malacopterygii . After him klei- 
nius once more took notice of the fpots ; but at the fame 
time introduced another confufion concerning this fifh, arifing 
from rondeletius having faid, that it has two cirri, while 
Willoughby afferts it has four ; but it is eafy to reconcile 
thefe authors, for though the Ophidium has only two cirri, yet 
each of thefe being divided in two, they appear as four ; fo 
that Willoughby might juftly fay, that it is quadri-cirratus. 
The fame author places the Ophidium in a genus which he calls 
Vgl. LXXI. M m m Enchelyopus , 
