176 PAGRUS ARGYROPS. 



often with a greenish or bluish tint above. D. 13-12. P. 16. V. 1-5. 

 A. 3-12. C. 17. 



Stnonymes. Sparus argyrops, Lin., Sys. Nat., torn. i. p. 471. 



Sparus argyrops, Gmel., Ed. Syst. Nat., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1277. 



Sparus , Poki, or Porgee, Schoepff, Schrift. der Gesells. Nat. Freund., b. viii. st. ii. 



p. 153. 

 Sparus xanthurus, Lacep., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. iv. p. 120. 

 Sparus argyrops, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iv. p. 426. 



Labrus versicolor, Milch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y., vol. i. p. 404, pi. 3, fig. 7. 

 Pagrus argyrops, Cm. et Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. vi. p. 164. 

 Pagrus argyrops, Slorer, Report, &c., p. 38. 



Pagrus argyrops, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iv. p. 95, pi. 9, fig. 25. 

 Pagrus argyrops, Ayers, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 260. 

 Pagrus argyrops, Slorer, Synops., p. 82. 

 Porgy, Vulgo. 



Description. The form of this fish witliout the tail is nearly oval ; much 

 compressed and arched or gibbous along the dorsal outline, and thin or almost 

 carinate in front of the dorsal fin ; thicker and nearly straight at the belly. The 

 head is short, but much elevated, and the facial outline slopes gradually to the 

 snout, being only a little prominent at the orbits, where it is broadest ; and the 

 snout is very narrow, and long. The eye is large, near the facial outline; and is 

 one diameter and a quarter of the orbit from the posterior margin of the opercle, 

 two diameters from the snout, and two diameters from the angle of the pre-opercle. 

 The nostrils are approximated and very near the orbit, and rather below its median 

 plane ; the posterior and much the larger is elliptical in form, the anterior is round. 



The mouth is small, the posterior extremity of the upper jaw not reaching to 

 the anterior nostril ; the lips are tolerably thick, and the upper is very protrac- 

 tile ; both jaws are armed with six incisor teeth, large, slightly compressed in 

 the antero-posterior direction, and of these teeth the four internal are truncated ; 

 behind the incisors is a group of minute teeth. Each jaw has two rows of molar 

 teeth, with their tips rounded or flattened ; the teeth of the inner row are largest. 



