GEN. CEPOLA. THE RED-BANb. 239 



3lediterrauean, and is often found on the coasts of 

 Spain, France, and Britain. Colonel IMontague 

 first described it as a British species in the year 

 1803, from .specimens taken on the south coast of 

 Devonshire (Trans. Linn. Soc, xiv.) ; Mr. Donovan 

 supplies a figure of one (vol. v. 105), and mentions 

 that he had examined other two; and in 1822 ]\Ir. 

 Couch stated that it was by no means uncommon 

 in his neighbourhood, nine specimens having fallen 

 into his hands. Dr. P. W. Maclagan reported that 

 two were observed near Ayr in 1827, o»^ being 

 caught on a whiting-line, and measuring fifteen 

 inches and a half (Mag. of Zool. and Bot., ii. 93) ; 

 and in February 1839 a great number were thrown 

 ashore along a considerable portion of the coast 

 of Devonshire, some measuring from eighteen tc 

 twenty inches. The compressed form of the body, 

 so striking a character in the adult fish, is not dis- 

 coverable in the young, which are oval and almost 

 round. The head is not larger than the body, the 

 lower jaw appearing largest when the mouth is open ; 

 the teeth are ranged along the outer edges of the 

 maxillary. The pectoral fins are small and rounded ; 

 the ventrals placed rather before the line of the 

 origin of the pectorals; the caudal tin lanceolate. 

 The skin is smooth, the scales, according to M. 

 Valenciennes, being extremely small, oval, smootli, 

 <mtire, insensible to the touch, not imbricated, and 

 appear under a glass as small deep pores, the head 

 and fins being destitute of them. In dried speci- 

 mens, the colour assumes various tints of red, criiii- 



