Fin-rays.—D. 12—10.P. 13.V. 4. A. 38.C.—
The third ray of the pectoral fin longest, the second and first regularly becoming shorter.
The remarkable shortness of the head, the roundness and perpendicularity of the front, equality of the jaws, interlocking of the teeth, and singular chin, are sufficient to distinguish this species from any one hitherto recognized as British; at the same time it so nearly agrees with the figure and description of the Orphe of Rondeletius,[1] that I have little hesitation in believing it to be the same fish.
It is intimated by Rondeletius, that among the Greeks more than one fish was known by the name of Orphus; and we further learn that the word Cernua, by which some Latin writers have rendered the Greek Ορφος, has been applied to a still greater number of species, all of them distinct from this, and even to the river Rud.[2]
Ray,[3] who limits the name Orfus to the Rud, describes the fish which he terms Orpheus veterum, from Rondeletius, in a manner to show that he was altogether unacquainted with it; and as the species termed Orphus by Bellonius is the other and more common one known by this name among the Greeks, we need not wonder at finding Ruysch[4] resigning all hope of extricating from such utter confusion what he saw might still be a well-defined species.
Nor does it appear that even the most industrious and able naturalists of the present day have been more fortunate than their prede-
- ↑ His account is this:—Ορφος ou Ορφως. Les Latins ont rétenu ce nom horsmis Gaze du quel est appellé Cernua. II est poisson marin de rivage, aucunement serablable au Pagre rougeastre. II ha les jeux grands, les dens qui entrent les unes entres les autres. De nombre, de situation d'aelles, d'eguillons semblable au Pagre. II ha le trou de excremens fort petit; car il ha seulement une petite fente, laquelle vous ne verres sans presser le ventre, il n'ha point de vaisseaux spermatiques. Tel est noster Orphe, au quel convient tout ce que Aristote é Athenée ont attribué. En peu de tems il devient grand, il est mangechaire, solitaire, il ha des dens qui se serrent les unes entre les autres, il est caché en hyver."—p. 139 of the French edition.
- ↑ After stating this, Gesner, who copies the figure of Rondeletius, adds,—"Nos (inquit Rondeletius) Orphum hîc non depingimus eum, qui a Græcis quibusdam hodie vulgari lingua Orphi nomine dicitur. Est enim nostro longè major, utpote qui pondere viginti libras æquet, nee sit litoralis. Sed Orphum depingimus ex Aristotele, Athenæo, Plinio. Is Piscis est litoralis magis quam pelagius, Pagro quodammodo similis, colore ex purpureo rubescente, ideo rubentem appellavit Ovidius: (verum hæc apud Plinium ex Ovidio non recte citatae leguntur). Ovidius pelagium facit, Aristoteles vero Ælianus litoralem. Oppiano degit in petris cavernosis, quae plenæ sunt chamis et patellis (quibus nimirum vescitur). Græci hodie, ut dictum est, alium piscem vulgo Orphum vel Rophum appellant; quern Bellonius Orphum facit."
- ↑ Synopsis, p. 133.
- ↑ Theatrum Animalium, i. 24.
