SPAROIDS. 93 



separated than those of the upper jaw, and in the interspace of the two 

 middle ones of the lower jaw, there are two small conical teeth. In 

 the upper jaw, the first tooth of the external row of molar teeth, 

 presents a conical crown ; the rest are rounder and more obtuse, but 

 present a small mammilloid apex ; after the eighth, there are three 

 or four much smaller teeth. The molar teeth of the second row are 

 less than the outer ones ; some much smaller granulated teeth, less 

 regular in their arrangement and size, are developed at the inner side 

 of the base of the second series. The principal molars of the lower 

 jaw are also in two rows, internal to which are some smaller and 

 less regular teeth, which are fewer in number than those of the 

 upper jaw. 



There is a constant and pretty quick succession of teeth in the 

 jaws of the gilt-heads. In the specimen figured, the outer plate, 

 of the intermaxillary and maxillary bones has been removed to 

 show the successors of the outer row of teeth, in various stages of 

 formation, but with the crown of the tooth nearly completed in most 

 of them. These germs are each lodged in a cavity close to the base 

 of the tooth which is to be replaced ; their course is directed towards 

 the outside of that base, and the cavity, which is occasioned by the 

 absorption consequent on the pressure, is enlarged from without 

 inwards, contrary-wise to the progress of the excavation which is pro- 

 duced in the succession of the teeth of the Reptilia. 



The matrix of the teeth of the Chrysophrys, as in most other 

 fishes, becomes ossified when the crown of the tooth is fully com- 

 pleted ; and the tooth is thus fixed by anchylosis to the margins of the 

 jaws. 



In the present and many other exotic species of Chrysophrys, the 

 new teeth always resemble in shape and size those which they suc- 

 ceed ; but in our common gilt-head {Chrysophrys aurata), some of the 

 posterior and internal molars, which in the young fish are hemi- 

 spherical, are succeeded in the mature fish by one or sometimes two 

 larger grinders of an oval form. 



In this species there are six holders, or produced anterior teeth, 

 in each jaw; they are relatively stronger, longer, and more curved 

 than in the Chrysophrys Australis. The obtuse grinding teeth are 



