152 
Malacoptekous Abdominals. - 
-FISHES.■ 
-Mokmyuians. 
Family XVII. — MOEMYEIANS (Mormyridai). 
These are longish, compressed fishes, with slender 
tails, having a slight expansion at the attachment of 
the caudal fin. A thick, scaleless skin envelopes the 
head, gill-cover, and the six branchiostegals, leaving 
merely a slit to serve as a gill-opening on each side. 
Premaxillaries that coalesce on the mesial line, like 
those of the Diodon bound the upper part of the small 
mouth, the sides being edged by the maxillaries. The 
temporal bones are simpler than those of other fishes, 
and a peculiar cranial canal conducts to the acoustic 
labyrinth. No pseudobranchiai have been found ; the 
stomach is globular ; there are two pyloric caeca and a 
long slender intestine. The air-bladder is simple. The 
arterial bulb has a lateral recess or diverticulum, and 
Professor llyrtl has found an inner muscular coat cor- 
responding to the outer ones of the Ganoids. Living 
among the mud like the Gyinnotids, the Mormyrians 
resemble them in some parts of their arterial system. 
The genera are — Mormyrus and Mormyvops. 
The species are numerous in the Nile, Senegal, and 
Congo, and several were objects of worship by the 
ancient Egyptians. They are timid, nocturnal fishes, 
extremely difficult to catch, but being of high value, 
the fishermen pursue them assiduously and bring a few 
to the markets of Cairo. They are taken with lines, 
furnis'hed with many hooks baited with worms. The 
Mormyrus anguillaris is carnivorous, but the other 
species are more or less exclusively phytophagous, 
which accounts for the small success of fishermen using 
the hook and line. 
The most noted of the fish held to be sacred by 
the ancient Egyptians were the Oxyrhinchus, Phagrus, 
and Lepidotus. The two latter have been noticed in 
page 149, under the generic names of Citharinus and 
llydrocyon, and their dentition corresponds to the 
reputation they have obtained as devourers of a part 
of Osiris ; but the slender tubular faces of the Mor- 
myrians show that they scarcely could deserve to be 
ranked with the bloodthirsty Characinoids. The Mor- 
myrus oxyrhinchus, however, is considered to be one 
of the fishes placed under the ban of the priests of 
Osiris. It is well represented by a small bronze 
figure that was brought from Egypt by Mr. Salt, 
and is now preserved in the museum of the Louvre. 
A cut of it is also given in Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s 
“ Ancient Egypt.” * We are there told that the 
Oxyrhinchus is very commonly represented in the 
paintings of Thebes, Beni-Hassan, and Memphis, and 
that it was the object of special worship in the city and 
Home of Oxyrhinchus. The citizens of that city were 
so scrupulous that they would eat of no fish taken with 
a hook, fearing that the hook might at some time have 
been employed in the capture of the object of their 
worship ; and when a net was used the draught was 
carefully scrutinized, and should a single Oxyrhinchus 
be found among the fishes taken, the whole were 
returned into the river. Tlutarch relates that the 
• See Series ii. page 250. 
Cynopolites having insulted the Oxyrhinchians by 
eating of their sacred fish, the latter in revenge 
killed and consumed the holy dogs of the Cynopolites, 
and thus a religious war ensued between the com- 
munities. 
Family XVIII.— HEEEING-PIKES {Clupesoddcc). 
The fish here grouped under this family designation 
were either associated with the Pikes by M. Valen- 
ciennes, or considered to be types of other small sections. 
Muller at one time thought that he had found a dis- 
tinctive character between them and the true Clupeoids 
in the absence of pseudobranchia; ; but having afterwards 
discovered these organs in the Odontognath, a close 
ally of Notopterus, he was led to restore the group to a 
place among the Clupeoids. We have thought it expe- 
dient, however, to retain the Odontognath with its 
strongly serrated belly among the Clupeoids, and to 
distinguish the Herring-pikes as a family, by the want 
of ventral serratures, the absence of an adipose fin, and 
of pseudobranchise. Their upper jaws are formed 
laterally by the maxillaries ; a few of them have a 
simple swim-bladder ; in some one or two pyloric caeca 
are present, while in others these appendages are 
wholly absent. 
The genera are — Stomias ; Microstoma ; Chirocentrus ; Noto- 
pterus ; Arapaima or Sudis ; Ileterotis ; and Butirinas. 
These genera are interesting to ichthyologists from 
peculiarities of structure. The Bntirins are known in 
the West Indies by the names of Banana-fish, Ten- 
pounders, and Kakamby ; and on the Gold Coast of 
Western Africa by that of Kio-lcio. In Tahiti their 
appellation is Mohee. 
Sudis, Vastres, or Arapaima, is a genus of fishes 
remarkable for their bulk of body and for the size and 
strength of their scales. One species discovered by Sir 
Eobert Schomburgh is appropriately named the Giant 
Sudis, and has a skeleton surpassing that of most other 
fishes in the strength and firmness of its bones. Its 
scales are almost bon}', and are sculptured on the discs 
in dendritic and mosaic patterns ; the thinly-covered 
bones of the skull also presenting similar appearances. 
These fish abound in Guiana and South America, and 
other species inhabit the Senegal and Niger. Skeletons 
preserved in our museums measure from three to five 
feet in length, and the hyoid-bone, which is used as a 
file by the natives of the countries where the genus 
exists, is often brought to Europe as a curiosity. The 
hyoid-bones from the Amazon are named Lingua de 
Paes, and those from the Eio Negra de Para are called 
Kuare. As some of these bones belong to species not 
yet described, the attention of travellers should be 
turned to finding and preparing the fish which produce 
them. Castelneau says that the fishermen of South 
America often mentioned the singular afiection of the 
female Piraruca (Sudis) for its progeny. It defends its 
eggs with vigour against the male fish, which seeks to 
devour them, and affords shelter in its mouth to the 
young fish when they are in danger. The fishermen 
ascribe the same habits to the large Siluroids. 
