ZEUS.] PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT 367 



mencing nearer the caudal ; its point of termination in the same vertical 

 line : both dorsal and anal arising from deep grooves in the hack and 

 abdomen respectively: pectorals falcate, very much pointed, of the 

 length of the head : ventrals a little behind them, scarcely more than 

 half as long : caudal deeply forked : 



B. 7 ; D. 81/30 ; A. 21/25 ; C. 17, and 10 ; P. 21 ; V. 1/5. 

 (Colours.) Lead-gray, variegated with blue and green; beneath silvery; 

 a black spot on the upper part of the opercle; irides golden. 



Common throughout the Summer, according to Mr. Couch, off the 

 coast of Cornwall. Occurs also at Hastings, and off other parts of the 

 English, as well as Scotch, coast. Preys on other fish. Obs. Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes describe this fish as varying greatly in the number of scaly 

 laminse on the lateral line, as well as in the degree of curvature of this 

 last, and seem to think that possibly two or more species may have been 

 hitherto confounded. For this reason I have been the more particular 

 in the above description, which is taken from specimens obtained at 

 Hastings, Sept. 1833. 



GEN. 18. ZEUS, Linn. 



(1. ZEUS, Cuv.) 

 41. Z. Faber, Linn. (Dory.) 



Z. Faber, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 454. Block, Ichth. pi. 41. 

 Don. Brit. Fish. vol. i. pi. 8. Flem. Brit. An. p. 218. Doree, 

 Will. Hist. Pise. p. 294. tab. S. 16. Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. 



L221. pi. 41. Dory or Doree, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 162. 

 Doree, Guv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 211. 



LENGTH. From twelve to eighteen inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Oval, very much compressed; tail suddenly con- 

 tracting immediately before the caudal: greatest depth half the entire 

 length ; thickness four times and a half in the depth : head very large, 

 but greatly compressed, one-third of the entire length: profile falling 

 regularly from the nape in nearly a straight line, and making a right 

 angle with the lower jaw, when the mouth is closed : this last very pro- 

 tractile ; gape large ; upper lip reflexed : lower jaw a little longer than 

 the upper, bifurcated behind, and terminating in two small sharp spines : 

 both jaws with fine velvet-like teeth : eyes large, very high on the cheeks : 

 opercle small, triangular, without spines : clavicular bone behind the opercle 

 terminating in a sharp spine : two spines behind the eye directed back- 

 wards, and one on each side of the occiput : a row of spines on each side 

 of the base of the dorsal and anal fins, at first simple, afterwards forked ; 

 between the ventrals and anal, a double row of large strongly serrated 

 scales, the serratures directed backwards ; pectoral ridge before the vent- 

 rals with three rows of the same serratures : scales on the cheeks and 

 body, small, deeply impressed : lateral line continually descending from 

 the supra-scapulars for two-thirds of its course, then suddenly passing off 

 straight to the caudal: dorsal commencing in a line with the posterior 

 angle of the opercle ; the spinous and soft portions divided by a deep 

 notch ; third spine longest, equalling half the depth ; all except the last 

 attended by filamentous prolongations of the membrane nearly as long as 

 themselves*; soft portion only half as high as the spinous; all the rays 



* Judging from the descriptions of other authors, it would appear that these filaments vary 

 very much in length, and that they are sometimes found twice or thrice the length of the spines 

 themselves. 



