224 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



are tolerably prominent. It is the largest and best 

 of the Mediterranean species. We have seen it on 

 the Atlantic coast of Europe, but its characters are 

 visible in several species of India and of America l . 



Another species, nearly as large as cephalus, and 

 common to the Mediterranean and the ocean, is the 

 M. capito, Cuv., the Ramado of Nice. The max- 

 illary visible behind the commissure of the jaws, even 

 when the mouth is closed; much weaker teeth ; nasal 

 orifices approximated ; the skin of the edge of the 

 orbit not extending to the globe of the eye ; the supra- 

 pectoral scale short and obtuse ; a black spot at the 

 base of the pectoral fin 2 . 



Two smaller species, M. auratus and M. saltator, 

 Risso, approach the capito : the maxillary of the first 

 is hidden under the suborbital, as in the cephalus, but 

 the nasal orifices are approximated as in the capito ; 

 the other, with the characters of the capito, has an 

 emarginated suborbital, which allows the end of the 



1 America produces five or six species badly characterized and 

 confounded by Linn., under the name of M. albula. Among the 

 number is the M. Plumieri, BL, become a Sphyrcena in Bl. Schn. p. 

 110, and the M. lineatxis, Mitch. The true cephalus of the Medi- 

 terranean is found on the whole African coast. Add, of species 

 from India, the Bontah, Russell ii. 180., or the M. our. of Forsk., 

 perhaps the same as our cephalus; the Kunnesee, id. 181 ; M. cor- 

 sula, Buch. pi. ix. 97- 



: This appears to us to be the species particularly described by 

 Willughby, and figured by Pennant. 



