POMOTIS INCISOR. 13 



POMOTIS INCISOR — Cuv. et Val. 



Plate II. Fig. 1. 



Specific Characters. Body very convex, deep blue above, lighter and bronzed 

 below, with two cupreous spots above and behind the eyes. D. 10 -12. P. 13. 

 V. 1-5. A. 3-11. C. 17. 



Synonymes. Pomotis incisor, Cuv. et Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. vii. p. 267. 

 Pomotis incisor, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iii. p. 33. 

 Pomotis incisor, Storer, Synops., p. 41. 

 Bream, Blue Bream, or Copper-nose Bream, Vulgo. 



Description. This fish without the head and tail is so much arched, both 

 above and below, as to be nearly sub-round, like the Choetodons. The head is 

 short, not much elevated, smooth above, and the snout broad and full. The eye 

 is very large, with its inferior border above the median plane of the head, and is 

 less than its diameter from the snout. The nostrils are midway between the eye 

 and snout, but on a line within the orbit ; the posterior is ovoid, the anterior round. 



The mouth is of moderate size ; the teeth of the inter-maxillary are similar to 

 those of the Pomotis vulgaris, though the outer row of larger teeth are not so long, 

 and in the old animal they are frequently blunt at their extremities ; the lower jaw 

 has an external row of similar teeth, and within these are numerous others, slender, 

 pointed, and recurved. The superior pharyngeals are small, and covered with con- 

 ical teeth, more or less pointed, and of various sizes ; the posterior are minute, 

 closely set, villiform, and the inferior pharyngeal has minute teeth on its outer half, 

 and moderately strong, conical teeth, more or less pointed, along its inner half. 

 The pre-opercle is rounded at its angle. The opercle is sub-triangular, with its 

 posterior angle rounded, from which hangs a long fleshy appendix. The sub- 

 opercle is long, broadest below ; the inter-opercle is broad. 



The dorsal fin begins behind the tip of the bony opercle, and extends to the 

 root of the tail; its anterior portion has ten spines, compressed, and ensiform; 

 the posterior portion is the more elevated, and has twelve branched rays. The 



