The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . y fishes thanwith any of the present family. One species is dia-phanous *, the viscera being inclosed in a bright silver-coloured membrane, analogous to that of Argentina:the two cirri are even more minute than in the last,being scarcely visible without the aid of a magnifier;and in both these speces the gill membrane has nume-rous rays. As the other subordinate types of this genusremain to be determined, we shall hazard no conjecturesupon them, but at once proceed to the next, which wepropose to designate Pachypte
The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . y fishes thanwith any of the present family. One species is dia-phanous *, the viscera being inclosed in a bright silver-coloured membrane, analogous to that of Argentina:the two cirri are even more minute than in the last,being scarcely visible without the aid of a magnifier;and in both these speces the gill membrane has nume-rous rays. As the other subordinate types of this genusremain to be determined, we shall hazard no conjecturesupon them, but at once proceed to the next, which wepropose to designate Pachypterus. In this there is still asecond adipose dorsal fin, but the cirri are very conspicuous;and the tail is considerably more lengthened, so as tobe often near three times the length of the abdomen: itis bordered beneath, for nearly its whole extent, by theanal fin. We cannot, at present, determine more thantwo of the sub-genera belonging to this group;—one fromIndia, which is the typical, includes many species; theother, which is the Hypopthalmus of Spix (Jig, 86.), and of. which two are known, seems peculiar to the rivers of Ame-rica. The second dorsal fin is reduced to so small a size,that it becomes almost obsolete. We next pass to the genus * Chandramara, lb. p. 162. THE , OR EEL SILURES. 347 Silurus, the most typical group in this sub-family, allof which are known by a single and very short dorsalfin, a very long anal fin, and a distinct caudal, eitherrounded or lobed. We may enter the genus Silurus bythe Silurus garua of Dr. Hamilton, which forms thetype of our sub-genus Clupisoma: this singular fishis almost a counterpart of Silonia, except that it has buta single dorsal fin, and the muzzle is provided witheight moderately long cirri. Had we not analysed thisgroup more than the others, we should certainly haveimagined these two singular types passed into each other;and, indeed, so long as the circularity of the generaPachypterus and Ageniosus remains undetermi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubj, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectreptiles
