ACANTHOPTERYGII. 103 " 



Ferca scriba, L.; Cuv. and Val. II, xxviii, so named from hav- 

 ing some irregular blue lines on the head.(l) 



Ferca cahrilla, L.; Cuv. and Val. 11, xxix. Three oblique 

 bands on the cheek.(2) It is also found in the ocean. This spe- 

 cies, and perhaps the preceding one, were known to the Greeks 

 by the name of ;^^ai', and were thought to consist exclusively of 

 females. Cavolini assures us, that in every specimen he exa- 

 mined, he found ovaries, at the lower end of which was a 

 whitish part which might be considered as the milt. He be- 

 lieves them to be hermaphroditical. The 



Anthias, B1., partim, 



Are Serrani, in which both jaws and the end of the muzzle are 

 armed with very apparent scales.(3) The most remarkable spe- 

 cies is, 



Mth. sacer, Bl.(4) pi. cccxv; Barbier tie la BIS diter ranee; Cuv. 

 and Val. II, xxxi. A most beautiful fish, of a fine ruby red, 

 changing to gold and silver, with yellow bands on the cheek. 

 The third dorsal ray is more than double the height of the others; 

 the ventrals are very long, and the lobes of the caudal terminate 

 in filaments, the lower of which is the longest. (5) 



Merra. 



Serrani, whose maxillary is destitute of scales, but whose lower 

 jaw is covered with small ones. There is one of them found in the 

 Mediterranean; the 



(1) It is also the Perca mariTics, Brunnich, the Holocentvus marinus, Laroche; 

 the Hoi- argus of Spinola, and the Hoi. maroccanus of Bloch. The Hoi. fasciaius, 

 151. 240, appears to us nothing more than the same species somewhat changed. 



(2) It is also the Hoi. virescens, Bl. ; the Serranus Jlavus and cahrilla of Hip.; the 

 Labrus chanus of Gmel. or Holocentre chani, Lacep.; the Bodian hiatule, Id. &c. 

 Add the SaccheUo, Labrus hepatus, L.; and Lab. adriaticus, Gm., or Holocentrus 

 siagonotus, Laroche, &c.; Serranus vitta, Quoy et Gaym., Voy. de Freycin., 

 Zool., LVIII, 2; i7o/. argentinus, Bl. 235; -fer. radialis, Q. et G., ol6;Serr. 



fascicularis, Cuv. et Val., II, xxx, and the other species described, Id. 11, p. 

 239249. 



(3) Most of our Merrs are placed by Bloch among his Anthias, but we restrict 

 this genus to the species answering to our definition of the same. So little re- 

 gard has Bloch had to exactness, that his Jlnthias sacer does not even possess the 

 character attributed to the genus Anthias, of a spineless operculum. 



(4) This term Sacer was applied by the ancients to their Jlntkius, a large Fish 

 very different from the one here described. See Cuv. et Val., IT, p. 255 et seq. 



(5) A.M Serranus oculatus, Cuv. et Val., II, xxxii, and the other species de- 

 scribed, lb. p. 262270. 



