The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . ral ichthyological work ofCuvier, inasmuch as it not only differs from the British fish,but from all others we have yet met with. It seems, in fact,either to be an entirely new Cepola, or to have been drawn froma dried and injured specimen. The species of the interestinggroup we shall now briefly describe, are all natives of the Sici-lian or British coasts; most of them were examined in arecent state, and specimens, in spirits, were sent to the BritishMuseum for subsequent examination. The fate of this inter-esting
The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . ral ichthyological work ofCuvier, inasmuch as it not only differs from the British fish,but from all others we have yet met with. It seems, in fact,either to be an entirely new Cepola, or to have been drawn froma dried and injured specimen. The species of the interestinggroup we shall now briefly describe, are all natives of the Sici-lian or British coasts; most of them were examined in arecent state, and specimens, in spirits, were sent to the BritishMuseum for subsequent examination. The fate of this inter-esting and to us invaluable collection, has been more thanonce adverted to. Out of near 200 specimens, then in beau-tiful preservation, not more than a dozen can now be found ;so that, but for our notes and drawings, these discoverieswould have been lost to science. A genera] uniformity, not only of shape, but of colours, appears to runthrough the whole of this group; the specific ?characters resting for themost part on the form and rays of the caudal fin {fg. 127.)j which, on at-. tentive examination, will be found to vary in a most remarkable characters, so difficult to determine in preserved specimens, eitherwet or dry, may in some measure account for the universal belief of therebeing but one species-. APPENDIX. 399 The Cepola rubescens of LinnEeus was probably a northern fish, and weaccordingly retain that name to the one figured and descri- . j ?8 bed by Montague.* It is atonce known from the follow-ing by the specific charac-ters above mentioned. Wemay observe^ in addition, thatthe dorsal fin commences be-fore the ventral, the base ofthe latter being in a line withthe second ray of the dried, and in spi-rits, are in the British Mu-seum, from whence these re-marks were made ; but nothaving seen this species in a fresh state, I cannot describe its colours. The annexed cut will show therelative positions of the above mentioned fins, while that lit fi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubj, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectreptiles
