231 



COUCH'S SEA BREAM. 



Couch's Sea Bream, Zoologist, vol. i, p. 81, 1843. 



Pagrus orphus, Cuvier. 



" GuNTHEK; Cat. Br. M., vol. i, p. 4G7. 



Pagelliis Bondeletii, Zoologist, 1S46. 



" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, 2nd. Sup., p. 4. 



There appears to be only one recorded instance of tlie 

 capture of this remarkable species in this country, and in 

 many respects it appears to be scarcely known to naturalists 

 in general, although described by Cuvier as a native of the 

 Mediterranean. The figure given by the last-named author, 

 although referred to above, at least in the outline of its 

 physiognomy, is but little characteristic; and the likeness of the 

 Chrysophrys crassii'ostris would better answer to the fish we 

 are about to describe. It was taken on the 8th. of November, 

 1842, with a baited hook, at a rocky ledge termed the Edges, 

 at the distance of three miles south of Polperro, in Cornwall, 

 and was placed in my possession as soon as it was brought 

 on shore. 



Its v/eight was six pounds. The head thick, the muzzle 

 remarkably so, and rounded; the line of the front sloping 

 suddenly from the forehead to the mouth; eyes of moderate 

 size, high, and near the front; nostrils in a slight dejJression^ 

 the superior large and open. Jaws equal, not protruding, the 

 lower with a well-marked chin. The teeth in front stout, 

 somewhat separate, those of the upper and lower jaws inter- 

 locking. The scales large, and conspicuous on the hinder 

 gill-covers; on the middle plate none, and slightly marked on 

 the anterior plate. The head being short the back rises high 

 above it. Lateral line very dark, not greatly curved, and 

 scarcely continued to the tail, the body ending in a defined 

 form at the origin of the caudal fin, with an incision opposite 



