The Hiftory of ANIMALS. 279 
the pinna ani, are black: in the middle of the tail there is a black tranfverfe line, bat 
the extremity of the tail again is white: the back fin is not fo high as in fome of the 
other fpecies; it has thirty-three rays, and twelve of them are prickly and very vobuft, 
the .reft are foft and ramofe; the middle ones are of the fame general length, and 
there is not any thing of that hair-like appendage as in the others: the pedorai fins 
are yellow, and have each fixteen rays; the belly fins are very black half way, and 
have each of them fix rays: the pinna ani has twenty-one rays, covered with fcales; 
the three firft are prickly, and very robuft: the tail is convex, or rounded at the ex¬ 
tremity, and has feventeen long rays. 
This alfo is caught about the Brafilian fhores, and is fometimes met with dried 
among our collectors. 
GASTEROSTEUS. 
T H E belly of the Gafterofteus is almoft entirely covered with oblong bony la¬ 
minae : the ventral fins confift only of two rays each, of which the one is much 
larger than the other, and prickly : the * branchioftege membrane contains three {len¬ 
der bones. 
Gafterofteus aculeis in dorfo tribus. 3CJ )t COHlttt’feft 
The Gojlerojleus, with three prickles on the bach 
Common and difregarded as this little fifh is, it has that in it’s ftrudure which fuf- 
ficiently merits obfervation. The body is throughout, in fome degree, com prefled, 
but more particularly fo in the hinder part: the head is large, long, comprefled, and 
very declivous from the eyes to the roftrum : the roftrum itfelf is fubacute, and the 
opening of the mouth is confiderably large; the head is of a very firm ftrudure, bony, 
flriated, and of a greyilh colour on the upper part: the under jaw is fomewhat pro¬ 
minent beyond the upper ■ the eyes are large, and fituated at the fldes, not on the top 
of the head, and their iris is of a filvery colour: the apertures of the noftrils are ex- 
treamly fmall; they are fituated at a middle diftance between the eyes and the roftrum, 
and each has only a Angle aperture inftead of the double one in moft fillies: the co¬ 
verings of the gills are large j they are compofed each of two large bony laminae 
and the branchioftege membrane : there are a great number of teeth in the verge of 
each jaw, but the palate and tongue are ftnooth. 
The lateral line is fomewhat crooked, and runs near the back, and parallel to it; 
toward the tail it rifes above the furface of the body, and forms a kind of fin-like pro¬ 
minence, whence that part of the body has a quadrangular figure in fome degree: the 
head and back of this filh are of a dufky colour, or an admixture of grey and brown 5 
the reft of the body is of a filvery white : the breaft is covered by two oblong bones, 
which coalefce at the top, and form, as it were one; over this armature of the breaft 
there is a large mufcle covered with a fmooth fkin ; this ftands before the \pedoral fins, 
and in it’s anterior part is the bone of the clavicle, which is large and Ample : the 
belly is covered with a double fcutiform bone, of an oblong figure, very firm and 
hard, and reaching to the anus ; and at the anterior part of that bone there is fituated 
another bone, at right angles, on either fide : this ferves to ftrengthen the Aides, and is 
on each fide continuous with the bone of the belly already mentioned : befide thefe, 
the whole lower part of the body, almoft to the tail, is covered with tranfverfe bones* 
twenty-fix or twenty-feven in number; the middle ones of thefe are the larged, but 
thofe next the head and tail are remarkably fmall. 
There is only one back fin, but this is large, and is extended almoft the whole 
length of the back; it has fifteen rays, of which the three anterior ones are prickly, 
and ftand at a great diftance from one another j the others are foft, and fomewhat 
forked at their extremities: of the prickly ones, the two anterior are large, long, 
equal, and ferrated at their fides; the third is fcarce equal to one third of the length 
of thefe, but all three are in part conneded by the membrane 5 not diftind and fepa- 
rate, as authors, who have described this filh, have generally faid. 
The pedoral, or, as they may be called from their fituation, the lateral, fins, are 
oblong, whitifh, and even at the extremities; they have each ten rays, which are all 
of the fame length, and all foft and undivided at the ends: the belly fins confift only 
of 
