POLYNEMUS, the polyneme, in natu ral history, a genus of fishes of the order Abdominales. Generic character : head compressed, covered widi scales ; snout very obtuse and prominent ; gill-mem brane, five or seven-rayed; separate fila ments near the base of the pectoral fins. Shaw enumerates ten species ; Gmelin only four.
The P. paradiseus, or Paradise poly neme, or Mango-fish, inhabits the Indian and American seas, and is thirteen inches long, elegantly shaped, and with thoracic filaments frequently far larger than the body ; its colour is yellow. At Calcutta it is in the highest estimation for the table.
P. plebeius, or the grey polyneme, abounds on the Malabar coast, and has five filaments on each side, but all rather short. It is sometimes four feet long, and is in some parts of India denominated the royal fish, from its extraordinary ex cellence. The application of the epithets, royal and plebeian, to the same animal, constitutes a curious coincidence : the former probably refers to the plainness of its appearance, and the other *to its exquisiteness for food.
P. niloticus, is both in form and taste superior to every other fish in the rivers hich flow into the Mediterranean or At lantic seas. It is covered with scales, re sembnog the most brilliant silver span gles, and is of the weight of thirty, in some instances, of seventy pounds. It is a native of the Nile, and Mr. Bruce has minutely detailed the process adopted by the Egyptians for taking it, by a cake of flour, dates, and other ingredients, with a considerable number of hooks conceal ed in it ; but attached to a string held by the fisherman, who floats on the stream, upon a blown-up goat's skin, in order to sink this mass, and then returns to the bank. He then fixes the line to some tree, connecting it with a bell, the sounds of which give him notice of the success of his experiment, being produced by the twitchings and pulls of the fish.