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Show 194 PISCES. PLESIOPS, Cuv. A Chromis with a compressed head, approximated eyes, and e1. tremely long ventrals. 1\IALAOANTHus, Cuv. The general characters of a Labrus, and similar maxillary teeth, but the pharyngeal teeth are like those of a ~ard, as in Chromis, &c.; the body is elongated, the lateral line contmuous, and the operculum terminated by a small spine; the long dorsal has but a small number of spines; the anterior ones thin and flexible. A species is found in the French Antilles, called by the inha· bitants Vive; it is the Coryphrene Plumier, Lacep., IV, viii, 1; yellowish, irregularly and transversely streaked with violet;(!) a crescent-shaped tail. ScARus, Lin. A genus of fishes with remarkable jaws (that is, their intermaxillary and premandibular bones), which are convex, rounded, and fur· nished with teeth, arranged like scales upon their edge, and upon their anterior surface; these teeth succeed each other from behind• forwards, so that those of the base are the newest, and in time form a row on the edge. Naturalists have erroneously thought that the bone itself was naked; besides, during the life of the fish, its jaws are covered by fleshy lips, but there is no double one adhering t() the suborbital. They have the oblong form of a Labrus, large scales, and an interrupted lateral line; they have three pharyngeal plates, two above and one below, furnished with teeth as in a Labrus; but these teeth are transverse blades, and not like rounded paving stones. A species, blue or red, according to the season, is found in the Archipelago, which is the Scarus creticus, Aldrov., Pisc., P· 8~ and which late researches have convinced me is the Scarus, so highly celebrated among the ancients; the same that Eli· is quoted, (from Carolina,) and that merely from a note by Garden, which requires confirmation (Labrus hiatula, L. ). It is not easy to imagine why Bloch, Scbn., p. 481, placed it in Trachypterus. (1) N.B. This fig. taken from Plumier, was altered by Bloch to represent his CoryphamaPlumieri, pl. 175. Lacepede gives a more e:xact one. It is also the Matejueln blanro of Parra, XIII, 1, or the Sparus oblongus, Bl., Schn., 283. ... Add the Tubleu, pf the Isle of France, or Labre large raie, Lacep. III, xxv~u, 2, the description of wbich is found, tome IV, p. 204, under the name of Twmanote largeraie. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 195 pertius Optatus, commander of a Roman fleet, during the reign of Claudius, went to Greece in search of, for the purpose of distributing it through the sea of Italy. It is an article of food in Greece at the present day.( 1) Numerous species are found in the seas of hot climates. The form of their jaws and the splendour of their colours have caused them to receive the vulgar appellation of Parrot-fishes. Some of them have a crescent-shaped tail,(2) and of these a few with a singularly gibbous forehead.(3) In others it is truncated. ( 4) We separate from Scarus the CALLIODON, Cuv. Where the latter teeth of the upper jaw are separate and pointed, and where there is an inner range of much smaller ones on the same;( 5) and the OnAx, Cuv. Which approaches a true Labrus in the inflated lips and continuous lateral line; the jaws, composed like those of a Scarus, are however flat and not gibbous, and are covered by the lips; the pharyn· geal teeth are en paves, as in Labrus.(6) FAMILY XV. FISTULARIDJE. The fishes of this family are characterized by a long tube, (1) N.B. It is not the Sc. cretensis, Dl. 228. (2) Scarus coccineus, Bl., Schn., Parra, XXVID, 2, which is the Spa'I'W abildgardii, lll., 259, and the Spare rougeor, Lacep., ITI, xxxiii, 3;-the Great SCllJ'11,8 with blue jaws, Sc. guacamaia, Cuv., Parra, XXVI;-the Sc. Cateaby, Lacep., Catesb., II, xxix;-the Sc. bride, Lacep., IV, 1, 2;-Sc. chrysopte:rus, lll., Schn., 57;Sc. capitaneus, Cuv., which is the Sc. enneacanthe, Lacep., IV, p. 6, and his Sc. denticuU, Id., p. 12 and pl. 1, £ 1, and of which he gives a description annexed to the Sc. chadri. (3) Sc. !oro, Bl., Schn., Parra, XXVII, 1;-Sc. creruleus, Bl., Schn., Parra, XXVII, 2, and Catesb., II, xiii, which is also the Coryph:Bna crerulea, Bl., 176, and what is more extraordinary the Spare holocyanose, Lacep., Ill, xxxiii, 2 and IV, p. 441, derives its origin from the same drawing of Plumier as this figure of Bloch. (4) Sc. vetula, Bl., Schn., Parra, XXVIII, 1;-Sc. tamiopterus, Desmarest;-Sc. chlori8, Parr., XXVIII, 3;-&. psittacus, Forsk. ;-Sc. viridis, lll. (5) Scarus 3pinidens, Quoy and Gaym., Zoo!. Voy. Freycin., p. 289, and aome new species. (6) Sea'I'W pullwr, Forster, Bl., Sehn., 288. \ |
