ACANTHOPTERYGII. 371 



Their flesh in general is of an agreeable flavour ; but they 

 do not appear to be in any very extraordinary demand. 



We have nothing to add on the numerous species of labrus, 

 nor on the subsequent subgenera. 



Of Chromis, the species vulgaris is taken in thousands 

 in the Mediterranean Sea. The fishers on the coast of Genoa 

 call it Castagno, in consequence of its chestnut colour. Its 

 flesh is in no estimation. The nilotica is found in the Nile, 

 in the small canals which are derived from that river, and in 

 the pools of water which remain after the inundation. It 

 feeds on aquatic plants and worms. Its flesh is delicate, and 

 of an agreeable flavour, and it is considered as the best fish 

 in the Nile. 



Of Scarus, the creticus, erroneously referred by Lacepede 

 and others, to the genus Cheilinus, which is of the Eastern 

 Seas, inhabits the Mediterranean, and particularly appears 

 near the coasts of Sicily and Greece. Accordingly it was 

 known by the first Greek naturalists. Aristotle, Athenaeus, 

 Elian, and Oppian, speak of it under the name of (ruapog. 



In the first centuries of the Christian era it used to advance 

 into the Carpathian Sea. Its celebrity was very great among 

 the ancients, who neglected no means of procuring it. 



In the reign of Claudius, Optatus Elipertius, commandant 

 of a Roman fleet, brought many of these fishes alive, which 

 he spread along the coast of Campania, where they multiplied 

 very quickly, because for five years any of them which hap- 

 pened to be taken by the fishermen in their nets, were imme- 

 diately thrown back into the sea. 



In the time of the greatest luxury of the Romans, the 

 scarus constituted a delicacy on the most sumptuous tables. 

 It entered into the composition of those famous viands, in 

 which the rarest objects were united, and which were served 

 up to Vitellius in the dish named the shield of Minerva. 



The entrails of this fish, according to the report of Rondelet, 



Bb 2 



