22 • LABRAX AMERICANUS. 



Description. The form of this fish, without the caudal fin, is nearly oval ; it 

 is compressed, arched and thin along the back, less arched and slightly thicker at 

 the belly. The head is rather long, but not much elevated ; the facial outline is 

 nearly straight, and the head is flat above, very narrow between the eyes, though 

 the snout is tolerably full and round. The eye is very large ; it is one diameter 

 from the snout, rather more than two diameters from the spine of the opercle, with 

 its inferior margin rather below the median plane of the head. The nostrils are 

 closely approximated; the posterior and larger is sub-round and very near the 

 orbit ; the anterior is round ; and both are on a line without the orbit and near 

 the middle plane of the eye. 



The mouth is of moderate size, the posterior extremity of the upper jawbone 

 extending but slightly beyond the anterior margin of the orbit. The lower jaw 

 is shorter than the upper, and both are armed with a group of numerous small, 

 pointed, villiform teeth, closely crowded together, and nearly of the same 

 size. The palate-bones have each a long, narrow patch, and the vomer an 

 angular group, in front, of still more minute teeth than those of the inter- 

 maxillary bones. The tongue has a band of minute teeth at its edges, and many 

 more are scattered about its tip ; the pharyngeals are covered with teeth, similar in 

 size and form to those of the jaws. 



The pre-opercle is rounded at its angle, and its whole free margin is serrated, 

 the largest serratures being at the angle. The opercle is longest vertically, and 

 terminates behind in a crescentic margin with two spines, of which the inferior is 

 the longer ; between these spines. the skin is extended. The sub-opercle is irregu- 

 larly quadrilateral, elongated, and narrow. The inter-opercle is rather broad, and 

 is rounded below. The whole head above and on the sides is covered with scales 

 to the anterior margin of the orbit ; the scales on the opercle are very large, those 

 on the posterior extremity of the superior maxillary bone are minute ; the sub- 

 opercle and inter-opercle have each a single row of scales. The gill-openings are 

 large ; there are seven branchial rays. The supra-scapular and humeral bones are 

 slightly serrated. 



