The Hifiory ANIMALS. 223 
The lateral line is ftraight; the fcales are of an oblong figure, but rounded at the 
ends; and the colour of the fifh on the back is a blackifh olive, but on the fides a pale 
filvery white, with a caft of yellowifii or greenifli : the fins on the bread: and belly 
are of a whitifh-yellow ; the others are of a more dufky brownifh-yellow, fpotted 
with black : there is only one fin on the back, which is fituated near the extremity of 
the body; this has twenty-one rays; the pedtoral fins are oblong, and have each fifteen 
rays; the ventral fins have each eleven rays, and the pinna ani has eighteen ; the tail is 
forked, and has nineteen long rays. 
This is very frequent in our ponds, ditches, and rivers; it is an extreamly voracious 
fifh: it’s common food is the fmaller fifh of the roach and fimilar kinds, but it eats 
alfo frogs, fnakes, rats, and even young water-fowl. All the writers on fillies have 
defcribed it; iElian, Oppian, and Athenaeus call it Oxyrinchus and Qxyrmebus Nili, 
the Latin writers, in general, Lucius. 
Efox rojlro cufpidato, gracili , fubtereti , et fpithamali . 
'The EfoXy with an extreamly long y jlender , rounded^ and 
pointed rojlrum . 
This is a fifh of an extreamly fingular figure; and, though evidently of the Efox 
or pike kind, yet has been, on account of the flendernefs of it’s body, ranked by many 
authors among the acus, a fifh as different as well can be from this genus: it is one of 
the flendereft fifh we are acquainted with, in proportion to it’s length; it grows 
to a foot and a half long, and is not thicker than a man’s finger : the body is 
comprefied, but the back is fomewhat convex, and the belly fiat: the head is ex¬ 
treamly long, and the opening of the mouth is continued all the way up to the eyes, 
and is befet with a vaft number of teeth, many of which are moveable : the end of 
the roftrum is fomewhat pointed, add the lower jaw is longer than the upper: the back 
is blackifh, or of an extreamly deep olive, and the fides are fomewhat yellowifh. 
We have it frequent about our own coafis; it is a very nimble fwimmer, and is 
extreamly voracious, Ariftotle and ./Elian call it Bea<wi and BiXm S-ax ama; Oppian 
and Athamasus call it 'P u(p)$ ■ Pliny defcribes it under the name of Belone; Albertus 
and Cuba call it Ahaniger; and Wootton, Acus five Belone; moft of the Latin Wri¬ 
ters call it Acus pifcis, Acus vulgaris, and Acus Oppiani; we call it the Gar-fifh, and, 
in fome places, the Horn-fifh. 
Efox maxilla fuperiore longiore , Cauda quadrat a. jZl)t fjttcli 
The fquare-toAled EfoXy with the upper jaw longefl. 
This greatly approaches to the former in fhape, but it is larger and fomewhat thicker- 
bodied, in proportion to it’s length : it grows to more than two feet long, and to the 
thicknefs of a man’s thumb : the head is very long and flender ; it is of a rounded figure, 
except toward the extremity, where it is depreffed : the opening of the mouth is fur- 
prifingly large, being continued the whole length of the head : the eyes are fmall, fi¬ 
tuated very high, and their iris yellowifh : the back is broad and flat; the fides but lit¬ 
tle, prominent; and the belly alfo flat, from the gills to the anus: the fcales are fmall, 
obiong, and rounded at their ends; they are placed in a very elegant, imbricated man¬ 
ner, and ftand extreamly clofe. 
We have this fpecies alfo about our own coafts, but it is not fo frequent as the for¬ 
mer. I met with feveral of them, a few years fince, among the Bognor rocks in 
Suflex. Lifter, and after him Willughby and Ray, call it Acus maxima fquammofa; 
confounding it with the other acus of the Syngnathus kind. 
ECHENEIS. 
'""I.^ H E head of the Echeneis is of a depreffed figure, broad and flat on the upper 
§ part, and marked with a number of rough, tranfverfe ridges, by means of 
which it fixes itfelf to any folid body: the body is oblong and rounded, but fomewhat 
deprefled ; there is an oblong fin on the hinder part of the back : the branchioftege 
membrane has about nine officles in it. 
Of this fingular genus there is only one known fpecies. 
Echeneis, 
