FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS. 



127 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



SPARIDJE. 



THE FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS. 



Dentex vulgaris, Cuv. et \ r ALENC. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. vi. p. 220, pi. 153. 



,, Bellonii, WILLUGHBY, p. 312, tab. V. 3. 

 Sparus dentex, LINNAEUS. BLOCK, pt. viii. pi. 268. 



,, ,, Toothed Gilt-head, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 331, but 



not the plate bearing that name, which 

 represents Ray's Bream. 



,, ,, Four-toothed Sparus, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 73. 



Dentex vulgaris, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 212, sp. 139. 



Generic Characters. Body deep, compressed ; dorsal fin single ; head 

 large ; teeth conical, placed in a single row, four in the front, above and below, 

 elongated, and curved inwards, forming hooks ; teeth on the branchial arches, 

 but none on the vomer or palatine bones : nose and suborbital space without 

 scales; branchiostegous rays 6. 



THE FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS is here inserted as a British 

 species on the authority of Mr. Donovan, the only English 

 naturalist I am aware of who has recorded its capture on the 

 British coast. In April 1805, a specimen of this fish, two 

 feet six inches in length, which had been caught off Hastings, 

 was brought to the London market, and, fortunately, fell into 

 the hands of the author of the Natural History of British 



