PISCES APODES. OPHIDIUM. 
29 
Branchial opercula consist of two flexible, streaked, oblong, plates; the membrane half exposed. 
The trunk The back carinate, straight; the sides compressed; the abdomen very short, sub-convex; the 
under part of the tail rendered somewhat rough, by a series of rough tubercles. 
The branchiae consist of four leaves with one interior row of tubercles. The lateral line descends from the 
crest, but from two inches behind the pectoral fin, it runs in a straight line to the tail, nearer the belly than the 
back. The anus near the head. 
The jins. The first ray of the dorsal, is nearly three inches in length, and resembles the cirri of the crest; 
the others are setaceous, the longest in the middle of the fin not exceeding an inch; the pectoral very small, 
ovate; the ventral wanting, unless two cirri of equal length with those of the crest, be taken for fins; the 
anal are entirely wanting, the caudal (not united with the dorsal,) consists of four rays, connected at the base, 
by a thin, narrow, membrane, and afterwards joining together, terminate in a very small setaceous thread. 
The colour, a pale silver; but the silvering comes off in thin pellicles upon handling. The dorsal fin on the 
edge is darkish. 
The length, two feet eight inches. 
REMARKS. 
This fish, unknown to Linnaeus, has been made a new genus by Bloch, characterised by the want of 
anal fins. 
A figure has been given by Ascanius,* under the name Regalicus. 
In the Danish Transactions for 1786, it is described Regalicus remipes ;j- and in the Swedish Transactions, 
in 1798, under the name Gymnetris Grillii.'J A species received from Goa, by Bloch, is distinguished, pinna 
ventrali biradiata. 
These definitions differ, in some respects, from one another; and all of them from the present subject. 
In 1796 a fish of this genus was cast on shore, in Cornwall; a drawing and description of which were sent 
to Sir Joseph Banks. It had two ventral cirri; and in the crest of the head resembled the present subject more 
than any of the others: the tail had been broken off 
The present fish was caught on the outside of the surf at Yizagapatam, in March 1788. The fishermen could 
give no name to it; declaring they never had seen any like it before. 
* leones Rerum Naturalium, Copenhag. 1772. 
+ Nov. Act. Societ. Hafn. 
X Act. Acad. Stockholm, Vol. XIX. 
