KEPOKT ON ICHTHYOLOGY. 389 



and con-ectly placed it in the vicinity of Serranus; they are indeed very closely related 

 to that genus as now restricted. 



Mr. Hill, of Jamaica, in a useful catalogue of the fishes of that island, has also 

 noticed a fish which he referred to Lahrax under the name of L. pliiviaUs, or the Rainy- 

 weather Chul>. It is said by that gentleman to be confounded by the fishermen w ith 

 the Lahrax nmcronatus {^Morone amerkana of this article), but differs from it by the 

 presence of vertical bars, like those of the common perch of P^urope and America. 

 Until more authentic infonuation is obtained, the relations of that species nnist be 

 entirely conjectural, and it is probable that it has no affinity to the Lahraces. 



Genus ROCCUS, (Mitch.) Gill. 

 Synonymy. 



Kocct'S MitchUl, Report in part ou the Fishes of New York, p. 25, 1814. 



Roccus Gill, Proceediugs Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila., vol. xi,p. Ill, 1860. 



Leplbema Eaf., Ichthyologia Obiensis, p. 23, 1820. 



Sci^NA sp. Bloch. 



Pekca sp. Bloch and Schneid., MitchiU, 1818. 



Centropome sp. Lac. 



Labrax sp. ('ill'., and. al. 



Lahraces with pectinated preoperculmn, cycloid or imperfectly ctenoid cheek and opercular 

 scales, lingual teeth developed in a marginal hand as trcll as at the hase, and sJadl with com- 

 pressed non-diaphanous brain-case and no mastoid projections. 



The body is elongate, subfusifoiTa or oblong-ovate, compressed, and with the back 

 anteriorly cui'ved. 



The head js compressed, laterally oblong conic. The operculum is armed witli two 

 spines, the upper of which is small; the preoperculum pectinated both behind and 

 below; the suborbital bones entire. The muciferous cavities of the lower jaw are not 

 very e^adent. 



Teeth on the interaiaxillary, dentary, palatine, and vomerine bones villiform; 

 those on the tongue present in a band along the lateral margins, and in two longitu- 

 dinal rows, or an elongated oval patch at the base. Interbranchial osselets smootli. 



The scales are ctenoid on the body, but on the head, from the nape to the nostrils, 

 and on the cheeks, are mostly cycloid. 



The lateral line is straight and continuous to the base of the caudal fin. 



The dorsal fins are not united by a perceptible membrane; the anterior liu has 

 nine spinous rays; the second is oblong, with one spinous, and from eleven to fourteen 



branched ones. 



The anal fin is opposite the second dorsal, and has tlu-ee spinous rays regularly 



increasing in size. 



The caudal is emarginate. 



The skull lias the brain-case with nearly flat sides below, rectilinear and flat toward 

 the aperture for the last two branches of the fifth nerve, a vacuity on each side between 

 the basioccipital and alispheroid bones, and the postfrontals laterally well developed. 



The genus Roccus is very closely allied to both Lahra.v. as now restricted as well 

 as to Mo^^ne. From Lahrax, it diff'ers chiefly in the character of the armature of the 



