is a name by which a variety of foreign fishes are distinguished. The pira-aca is a little horned fish of the West Indies, called by Clusius and others the monoceros or unicorn-fish. The pira-acangata is the name of a Brazilian fish, which resembles the perch both in size and shape. It seldom exceeds four or five inches in length; its mouth is small; its tail forked. On the back it has only one long fin, which is supported by rigid and prickly spines. This fin it can depress at pleasure, and sink within a cavity made for it in the back. Its scales are of a silvery white colour; it is wholesome and well tasted. Pira-bebe is the name of the milvus, or kite-fish. Pira-coaba is an American fish of the truttaeae kind, of a very delicate flavour. It grows to the length of 12 inches; its nose is pointed, and its mouth large, but without teeth; the upper jaw is longer than the under one, and hangs over like a cartilaginous prominence; its eyes are very large, and its tail is forked; under each of the gill fins there is a beard made of fine white filaments, and covered with silvery scales. Pira-jurumenbeca is a Brazilian fish, otherwise called bocca molle. It lives in the muddy bottom of the American seas, and is a long bodied not flattened fish. It grows to a great size, being found nine, and sometimes even ten or eleven, feet long, and two feet and a half thick. It has one long fin on the back, the anterior part of which is thin and pellucid. There is also a cavity on the back, as in the pira acangata, into which the fin can be depressed at pleasure; the tail is not forked, and the scales are all of a silvery colour and brightness. The fish is very well tasted; the pira pixanga is another Brazilian fish of the turdus or wraffle kind, and called by some the ostrich. It is generally about four or five inches long; its mouth is pretty large, and furnished with very small and very sharp teeth; its head is small, but its eyes are large and prominent, the pupil being of a fine turquoisé colour, and the iris yellow and red in a variety of shades. The coverings of the gills end in a triangular figure, and are terminated by a short spine or prickle; its scales are very small, and so evenly arranged, and closely laid on the flesh, that it is very smooth to the touch; its tail is rounded at the end; its whole body, head, tail, and fins, are of a pale yellow colour, variegated all over with very beautiful blood-coloured spots; these are round, and of the lignes of hemp-seed on the back and sides, and something larger on the belly; the fins are all spotted in the same manner, and are all marked with an edge of red. It is caught among the rocks, and about the shores, and is a very well tasted fish. Piranha is an American fish, more generally known by the name piraya. Piraguiba, or Ipiraquiba, is the name of a fish originally Brazilian, which some writers apply to the remora or sucking fish.