SARGUS OVIS. 51 



Remarks. Klein established his genus Sargus, to receive certain fishes with 

 flattened, truncated, incisor teeth, and he consequently included in it many fishes 

 having this character in common, although they belong in reality to very 

 diff"erent genera. It was Cuvier who first restricted this genus within the proper 

 natural limits above stated. 



SARGUS OVIS. — MitchiU. 



Plate VIII. fg. 2. 



Specific Characteks. Form semi-oval, compressed ; head dusky above ; body 

 grey above, silvery-Avhite at the sides, with six or seven vertical dusky bars ; belly 

 white ; mouth small, with six or eight quadrilateral, trenchant, incisor teeth, in 

 each jaw ; and two or three rows of rounded, sub-conical, paved, molar teeth. D. 

 12-12. P. 16. y. 1-5. A. 3-11. C. 17. 



SvNONYMEs. Sparus, Sheepshead, Schoepjf, Schrift. der Gesells. Nat. Freund., b. vii. st. ii. p. 152. 

 Sargus ovis, Milch., Trans. Lit. et Phil. Soc. N. Y., vol. i. p. 392, pi. 11, fig. 5. 

 Sargus ovis, Cm\ el Vol., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. vi. p. 53. 

 Sargus ovis, Storer, Report, &c., p. 36. 

 Sargus ovis, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iv. p. 89, pi. 8, fig. 23. 

 Sargus ovis, Ayres, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 260. 

 Sargus ovis, Slorer, Synops., p. 80. 

 Sheepshead, VuTgo. 



Description. This fish is of a semi-oval form, compressed, thicker and nearly 

 straight at the belly, thinner and greatly arched along the back, with its greatest 

 elevation opposite the sixth dorsal spine. The head is large, compressed, elevated, 

 full between the orbits, which are promment, and with the snout rather narrow, 

 though rounded. The eyes are large, near the facial outline, and about three 

 diameters of the orbit above the angle of the pre-opercle, three from the anterior 

 extremities of the incisor teeth, and two diameters from the angle of the opercle. 

 The pupil is deep sea-blue, and the iris silver-grey, with an internal golden margin. 



