276 SUPPLEMENT ON 



fish, described by Catesby, very different from the anthias of 

 Rondelet. Lacepede refers it to Lutjanus, and Shaw to 

 Spams. T. Delaroche describes an individual taken near 

 Ivica, at a depth of seventy fathoms, which was the only 

 specimen the fishermen who took it had ever met with. No- 

 thing is known of its habits ; and Bloch was not warranted 

 in attributing to it all that the ancients have said of their an- 

 thias, or that it was gregarious, deposited its spawn in sum- 

 mer, drove the voracious fish from the place of its residence, 

 and was, therefore, called the sacred fish, an epithet applied 

 by the Greeks to many species, without any very obvious rea- 

 son. Their anthias was found only on the coast of Pamphy- 

 lia, in Asia, where it was the object of a particular fishery, 

 which Pliny has described with circumstances which denote 

 the facility with which the tales of the fishermen found credit 

 with him. 



This fish is described as being covered with all varieties 

 and shades of red of the most brilliant hue. 



Colonel H. Smith has figured an undescribed serranus 

 (sarnicus), which we have copied. It is red, lined and dotted 

 with purple. 



Among the jugular percoides we may notice Trachimis 

 Draco of Lin., the weaver of our own country, the sea dragon 

 of Pliny, and many others. This fish inhabits the British 

 Channel and the Mediterranean, embedded in the mud or 

 sand, in which it digs a retreat, especially towards the end of 

 spring, at which period it casts its spawn also. 



Fishing for this brilliant and beautiful fish is not without 

 risk ; and as the fancied beings of mythology frequently con- 

 nected the greatest beauty with the utmost malevolence, the 

 ancients, finding these qualities associated in the fish in ques- 

 tion, named it the sea-dragon. The extent, however, of its 

 power of mischief consists in inflicting a severe wound with 

 the spines of the 'first dorsal fin, which, nevertheless, are not 



