CLASS PISCES. 251 



Labrus, Lin. 



A very numerous genus of fishes, which strongly 

 resemble each other in their oblong form ; their 

 double fleshy lips, from which they derive their name, 

 one adhering immediately to the jaws, and the other 

 to the suborbitals ; their crowded branchiae with five 

 rays ; their conical maxillary teeth, the middle and 

 anterior of which are the longest, and their cylindrical 

 and blunt pharyngeal teeth arranged en pave, the upper 

 ones on two large plates, the lower on a single one 

 which corresponds to the two others. Their stomach 

 does not form a cul-de-sac, but is continuous with an 

 intestine without cceca, which after two inflexions 

 terminates in a large rectum. They have a single and 

 strong natatory bladder. 



Labrus, (properly so called). 



The opercula and preopercula without spines or 

 dentations ; the cheek and operculum covered with 

 scales ; the lateral line straight, or nearly so. The 

 seas of Europe produce several species, the variation 

 of whose colours rarely allows them to be clearly dis- 

 tinguished \ 



L. maculatus, Duham., Schn. iv. pi. ii. f. 1. Lab. 

 maculatus, Bl. 284. ? Lab. bergilta, Ascan. Ic. 1. 

 From a foot to eighteen inches in length ; twenty, or 

 twenty-one dorsal spines ; blue or greenish above, 



1 With respect to these fishes we can neither trust to the figures of 

 Bloch, nor to the synonyms of Gmclin. 



