FISHES. BRAKCHIOSTEGOUS. 62. Centnfcus. 897 
62. CENTRISCUS. Head lengthened into 
a very narrow fnout : mouth without 
teeth ; lower jaw longer : aperture of 
the gills hrodid, flat : body coraprefled : 
belly carinate : ventral fins united. 
Back covered with a fmooth bony fhell. 
Inhabits India ; 6 — 8 inches long ; feeds on mud, and leffef 
aquatic animals } body thin, pellucid near the back, above 
brownifh, the fides yellow mixed with filvery, beneath red- 
dilh, and marked with tranfverfe white lines. 
Head oblong ; fnoat tubular, bent up ; mouth narrow ; iris 
yellowilh- white ; eyes with a niftitant membrane, ai*l near 
the nojlrils, which are double ; gill-cover fmooth, pellucid, 
horny, the aperture lateral and large ; back covered with very 
fmooth, golden, clofely united plates, the hind-part armed 
with a long, fpear-like point; belly with 10—12 plates, en- 
compafled at the lower edge with a thin, loole membrane; 
peSoral fins diftant from the gills, yellowifh; ventral and 
yellowilh, the reft brown. 
Dorf,^, 11, pect. 11, vent 5, an. 13, caud. 12 rays. 
Body fcaly, rough ; tail ftraight, extended. 
Inhabits the Mediterranean lea; afpanlong; body pale red, 
broad, rough, with hard, pointed, clofely imbricate fcales ; 
flelh eatable. 
Head broadifh above; fnout turned up ; mouth very narrow ; 
lower jaw with a cover ; eyes lateral, large, iris pale red ; 
nojlrils double, near each other ; gill-cover of one piece, the 
aperture very large ; fns cinereous ; firft ray of the pectoral 
very long ; ventral fmall, hid in a bony hollow ; dorfal and 
anal oppolite, the former with rigid rays, the firft of which 
is moveable, very ftrong, toothed each fide and placed in a 
little hollow ; tail rounded, 
DorJ.\,\.~i, pect. 16, vent, g, an. iS, caud.gnys,^ 
• Body oblong lanceolate, rough with fmall recumbent brif- 
ties at the noftrils, 
Vol. I. — 5 Y 
Inhabit? 
