1 SPARID M. 



edge of the gill-cover is very narrow, and the disk is 

 covered with six rows of scales nearly as large as those 

 on the body, but diminishing to five and four rows as they 

 descend over the suboperculum whose junction with the 

 operculum they wholly conceal. From opposite the 

 upper corner of the opercular notch, a strip of scaleless 

 very porous integument curves upwards and forwards to 

 the mesial line of the occiput opposite the posterior 

 angles of the orbits where it meets its fellow : it includes 

 the porous disk of the suprascapula, which looks like a 

 scale, and is bounded posteriorly by eight or nine scales, 

 being the commencement of those on the body, but ap- 

 pearing larger from their whole disks being exposed. On 

 the temples between the naked border of the orbit and 

 .the humero-nuchal arc of integument, there is a short 

 isolated patch of scales ranged in four rows. With this 

 exception, the top of the head, the snout, and jaws are 

 destitute of scales. 



The lateral line bounds the upper fourth part of the 

 height, having a rather flatter curve than the back : it is 

 composed of seventy-eight scales, exclusive of the small 

 scales on the base of the caudal, where the line cannot 

 be traced in the dried specimen. Where the body is 

 highest there are six rows of scales above the row which 

 forms the lateral line, and about twelve below, all ranged 

 so as to form nearly a semicircular curve between the 

 dorsal and ventral profiles, and having a Sciaenoid aspect, 

 with more or less obliquity. The free border has a smooth 

 nacry surface, with many little pits, producing the same 

 appearance of frosted silver which the naked parts of the 

 head exhibit. A detached scale has a straight base, im- 

 pressed with six, eight, ten, or more furrows, separated 

 by ridges that diverge, like the rays of a fan, from a point 

 situated in the posterior third of the disk : the sides are 



