SEA WIFE. 



339 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



LABRlDsE. 



THE SEA WIFE. 



Acantholabnts Yarrellii, Cuv. et VALENC. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. xiii. p. 250. 



A SPECIMEN of this fish, measuring nine and a half inches 

 in length, I obtained in the London market, and had a 

 drawing of it made at the time, from which the figure above, 

 reduced in size, was taken. In the proportions of the body 

 and its different parts, it is intermediate between L. macu- 

 latus and L. variegatus. It is not so short a fish in pro- 

 portion to its depth as the first, yet shorter and deeper than 

 the second, and distinct, apparently, from both in colour. 

 Though approaching some specimens of L. variegatus, it is 

 distinguished by the ascending line of the preoperculum 

 being much more oblique, forming with the inferior margin a 

 more obtuse angle ; by the six spinous rays at the commence- 

 ment of the anal fin : the teeth are also smaller and more 

 numerous, in the upper jaw especially. The length of the 

 head, compared to the whole length of the fish, is as two to 

 seven ; the depth of the body is to the whole length of the 

 body, without the caudal fin, as one to four : the vent in a 



