20 



THE SPAEOID FAMILY, OK SEA lUlEAMS. 



These fishes are compressed in tlie lorm and proportions 

 of tlieir body and cheeks, with a tendency to an oval in the 

 outline; the cheeks and body firmly clothed with scales, but 

 not having them extended over the fins. Anterior portion of 

 the dorsal fin with spinous rays, the hinder portion having 

 soft and branched rays. The jaws usually or nearly equal, 

 but the teeth subject to much variety; and as the species are 

 numerous, a large part of which inhabit warmer climates 

 than our own, naturalists have found it necessary to divide 

 them into several sections or genera, which is most conveniently 

 done according to the form and arrangement of their teeth. 

 It is the consequence of this that there exists a near affinity 

 between these several genera, and that, indeed, it often happens 

 there is less difference in the characters of some of the 

 genera than is found between the species in other departments 

 of nature. 



As is the case with other fishes which come to as fi'om 

 warmer or brighter seas, either as periodical or wandering 

 visitors, they are subject to change of cohnir, and remarkably 

 so when in their highest condition, as compared witJi their 

 emaciated or lower state. And as it is not always convenient 

 to destroy a specimen, which must often be done if wc wish 

 to examine the full course of the teeth, it need not surpiise 

 us if it liajipcn tliat the rarer species have not been always 

 clearly recognised; and consccjuently tiiat they have not been 

 in every case refcricd to the ]n-opcr synonymes, as de^ii^natcd by 

 other observers. Such mistakes have been laid to ibc charije 

 of some of our most caieful authors; and it is in onlcr that 

 1 may kccj> clear of the mi fortune of increasing such errors, 

 that, in describing the specie^- which have been recorded as 

 occurring in Britain, my refercnccb to uthcrs. and especially to 

 foreign writers, will be less frcqucnl than usual, or as might 



