112 ORDER ACAXTHOPTERYGII. 



Perca gigas, Gm. 



Cloudy brown, three feet or more long. This is also 

 taken in the ocean. 



The foreign merous are extremely numerous. In 

 many the denticulation of the preoperculum become 

 nearly imperceptible ] ; but in general they can only 

 be distinguished by their colours. 



There are several whose body is sprinkled with co- 

 lours, more or less bright 2 . 



Others have it sprinkled with crowded spots 3 . 



1 These when their muzzle is naked, form the bodians of Bloch ; 

 they differ only in having this denticulation less marked, from the ma- 

 jority of the holocentres of the same author. The holocentres 

 take the name epinephelus when their muzzle is scaly, and in this 

 case the hodians take that of cephalopholis. The lutjans and the 

 anthias of Bloch, differ from the holocentres by not having spines on 

 the operculum ; in the former the muzzle is naked, in the latter it is 

 scaly, but all these characters, little important in themselves, are very 

 ill applied to the species. 



2 These are the Jacob Evertsen of the Dutch, such as Bodianus gut- 

 tatus, Bl. 224. Cephalopholis argus, Bl. Schn. p. 61. Bodianus 

 bcenak. Bl. 226. Holoc. auratus, id. 236. Hoi. cceruleo-puncta- 

 tus, Lacep. iii. 17. 2., &c. And in America Perca guttata, Bl. 312. 

 or Spare sanguinolent, Lacep. iv. 4. 1. P. maculata Bl. 213. or 

 Spare Atlantique, Lac. iv. 4. 1. Johnius guttatus, Bl. Schn. or 

 Bonaci-arara, Parra, xvi. 2. Lutjanus lunulatus, Bl. Schn. or 

 Cabrilla, Parra, 36. 1. Bodianus guativere, Parra v. Holoc. puncta- 

 tus, Bl. 241. or Pyra pixanga, Marg. 152. Gymnocephalus ruber, Bl. 

 Sch. 67. or Caranna, Marg. 147. Bodianus apua, Bl. 229. 



3 Epinephelus merra, Bl. 329. Holocentre pantherin, Lacep. 

 iii. 27. 3. Serranus bontou Cuv. Russ. 128. Serr. suillus, Russ. 



