133 
BEARTIKP OrniDITJM. 
The usual length of this fish is eight or nine inches, and 
in shape it may be compared with the Eel or Conger, but that 
it is stouter in comparison with its length, and also more 
compressed; the form becoming more slender towards the tail. 
The body is clothed with small scales of an oblong form, which 
do not overlap each other. The jaws are equal, and the angle 
of the mouth a little depressed; gape wide; rows of fine teeth 
in the jaws, and some in the palate; eye large; lateral line 
straight. The single dorsal fin, with one hundred and forty 
rays, or as Eisso says, one hundred and twenty, begins over 
the pectoral and runs to the end of the body, where it becomes 
united to the anal — -forming the tail. Under the throat, and 
attached to the hyoid bone, is what is strictly a pair of barbies, 
which, in an example that measured eight inches, were an inch 
in length; but not far from their origin they are divided into 
two unequal branches; and this has led to their being often 
described as four in number. The colour of this fish is variously 
described, but a prevailing tint on the back is blue; silvery 
on the sides and belly, sprinkled on the sides with dots. The 
dorsal and anal fins are narrow and grey with a dark edge. 
We have remarked that it is probable this Bearded Ophidium 
has been confounded with another, which much resembles it, 
and which stands in the Catalogue of the British Museum as 
Ophidium broussonetii, in honour of a gentleman who wrote a 
paper on the subject, which is contained in the “Transactions 
of the Royal Society” for 1T81; but it diffei's in having “only 
four gill rakers on the lower branch of the outer branchial 
ai'ch,” whereas 0. barbatum is furnished with five or six. There 
is also a different form of the air-bladder; an organ the form 
of which offers specifically distinctive marks in this genus as 
in many others; and of which, therefore, a figure is given by 
Willoughby as it is found in the Bearded Ophidium. In 
Broussonet’s Ophidium this organ is ovate, without a contracted 
part; and there is no separate bone which fits into the anterior 
portion of this air bladder. This species is a native of the 
Mediterranean. 
