140 Mr NeilFs Account of a Rare Finh 



tions that the first dorsal, the pectorals, and the ventral are red; 

 the others reddish-brown: And Mr Sinclair notices, that, in the 

 fresh fish, the " fins were of a beautiful dark red colour." It is 

 also remarkable that Mr Sinclair reports, that the fish ^* made 

 a buzzing sort of noise in the boat ;" and that Cuvier mentions 

 the " mugissement "" of the maigre as being louder than that of 

 the gurnard, and adds, that some of the French fishermen (hke 

 the Shetlanders) described it as a " bourdonnement sourd." ^ 

 Much confusion has prevailed among ichthyological writers 

 regarding this species of Sciaena. Baron Cuvier remarks, that it 

 was well known to the older naturalists, and was described and 

 figured by several of them. Belon, Rondelet, and Salvien, all 

 take notice of it. Willughby, so clear and accurate whenever 

 he describes from actual observation, had not met with any spe- 

 cimen ; and both he and Ray, therefore, speak of the Sciaena in 

 a confused way. The work of Willughby, it is farther remark- 

 ed by Cuvier, served as the foundation for that of Artedi ; who, 

 in his turn, was copied by Linnaeus. In his Systema, Linnaeus 

 confounded, under the title of Sciana umbra^ two species ; — the 

 corb of Rondelet, or Sciaena nigra of Bloch, — and the maigre or 

 algle-de-mer of the French, which is our fish. His Sciaena um- 

 bra has black fins instead of red, (being those of the corb or 

 Sciaena nigra) ; while the rest of his description is applicable to 

 our fish. In this way a good species came to be discarded, for 

 a long time, from the systems of ichthyology. The maigre, it 

 seems, was formerly a well known and much esteemed fish in the 

 French market, but had disappeared for a long course of years. 

 In the year 1813, however, the fishermen of Dieppe took several 

 specimens of the maigre, and gave it, from tradition, the name 

 of aigle. The late M. Noel de la Moriniere (distinguished for 

 his accurate researches regarding the French fisheries) transmit- 

 ted a description to the Count de La Cepede, who, in the Sup- 

 plement to his great work on Fishes, noticed the species vmder 

 the title of Cheilodiptere aigle ; — not a fortunate one, as the 

 mouth does not in reality exhibit the essential character of his 

 genus Cheilodipterus. 



From Dr Cloquefs notice in the " Dictionnaire des Sciences 

 naturelles,"*^ art. Cheilodiptere, it would appear, that Baron 

 Cuvier at first adopted the name of Sciaena Aquila for this spe- 

 cies. In his paper in the " Memoires du Museum,*" he adopts 



