The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . ties in our way, thereis some reason to believe that the Characince reallycontain representations of the Salmonince: and that alittle attention to the peculiarities of the forms in eachwill materially confirm this idea, will be apparent fromthe following considerations. (225.) In the first place, it will be observed, that themost typical salmon of Europe are those which, like thecommon species, have a widely cleft mouth (fig. 52. b),with the jaws, and all the bones of the palate and throat,covered with teeth; so mu
The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . ties in our way, thereis some reason to believe that the Characince reallycontain representations of the Salmonince: and that alittle attention to the peculiarities of the forms in eachwill materially confirm this idea, will be apparent fromthe following considerations. (225.) In the first place, it will be observed, that themost typical salmon of Europe are those which, like thecommon species, have a widely cleft mouth (fig. 52. b),with the jaws, and all the bones of the palate and throat,covered with teeth; so much so, indeed, that Cuvierhas well observed, they are the most completelydentated of all fishes. Now, if we look to the Ameri-can salmon, we shall find that the extraordinary deve-lopment of these organs takes place likewise in theSerrasalmi: the teeth of these ravenous fishes are asformidable, in size and structure, as those of thesharks ; taking into account the relative size of the tworaces: the tongue, indeed, in those of the American rivers, ANALOGIES OF THE SALMON. 257. is smooth ; but then theteeth of the jaws are large,triangular, cutting, anddentated: in some, in-deed, as in Myletes Cuv.,the teeth are so strong asto be employed in mas-tication. The form, num-ber, and situation of theseteeth vary in a remarkablemanner; but, from beingpresent in all the speciesand sub-genera, we mayat once decide that theSerrasalmi are the most perfectly dentated of theAmerican division, just as the true salmons are ofsuch as occur in Europe. The affinity between Ser-rasalmo and Characinus (Jig. 52. a) is as intimate, ac-cording to the way in which Cuvier has placed them inhis system, as that which unites Salmo with Coregonus:noWj the teeth in both these groups are always smallerand fewer than in the two preceding ; they have botha small mouth ; the scales of both are larger; and inboth, the teeth are often altogether wanting: this re-semblance, in fact, between the two is so strong, tha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubj, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectreptiles
