370 PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. [CORYPH/ENA. 



GEN. 20. CORYPH^NA, Linn. 



(1. CENTROLOPHUS, Lactp.} 

 44. C. Morio, Cuv. (Black-Fish.) 



Centrolophus Morio, Cuv. et Vol. Poiss. torn. ix. p. 254. C. niger, 

 Lactp. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. torn. iv. pp. 441, & 442. pi. 10. f. 2. 

 Perca nigra, Gmel. Linn. torn. i. part iii. p. 1321. Black-Fish, 

 Borl. Nat. Hist, of Cornw. p. 271. pi. 26. f. 8. Yarr. Brit. Fish. 

 vol. i. p. 158. Black Ruffe, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 260. 

 Black Perch, Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. m. p. 351. 



DESCRIPT. " Smooth, with very small thin scales; fifteen inches long, 

 three-quarters of an inch (three or four inches ?) broad besides the fin ; 

 head and nose like a Peal or Trout ; little mouth ; very small teeth ; a 

 full and bright eye ; only one fin on the back, beginning from the nose 

 four inches and three-quarters, near six inches long; a forked tail; a 

 large double nostril." BORL. 



"Fifteen inches long: (a second specimen measured two feet eight 

 inches in length, and weighed nearly fourteen pounds :) blunt and 

 rounded over the snout, flattened on the crown; mouth small; tongue 

 rather large ; teeth in the jaws fine ; nostrils double, that nearest the eye 

 large and open; eye prominent and bright; five gill-rays; though soft, 

 the membrane of the preopercle had a free edge, somewhat incised : body 

 compressed, about three inches deep ; a thin elevated ridge, which makes 

 it appear deeper on the back, on which the dorsal fin is seated: this 

 fin begins at four and a half inches from the snout, and reaches to the 

 distance of twelve inches from it ; the rays fleshy at the base, many of 

 them obsolete ; vent six and a half inches from the lower jaw ; pectoral 

 fins pointed; ventral fins bound down by a membrane; tail forked : lateral 

 line somewhat crooked at its commencement : body covered with minute 

 scales, which when dry appear curiously striated. Colour of the whole 

 black, the fins intensely so, very little "lighter on the belly; somewhat 

 bronzed at the origin of the lateral line. While employed in drawing a 

 figure, the side on which it lay changed to a fine blue." COUCH, as quoted 

 by YARR. 



We have as yet but an imperfect knowledge of this species, which was 

 originally described by Borlase from the papers of Mr. Jago, who ob- 

 tained two specimens at Looe, May 26, 1721. Cuvier seems to enter- 

 tain no doubt of Jago's fish being the same as the Centrolophus niger 

 of Lacepede, which last he thinks may prove to be the adult state of 

 his C. Pompilus, the Pompttus of Rondeletius. This idea receives con- 

 firmation from a statement of Mr. Couch, who has lately rediscovered 

 this species in the Cornish seas, and, apparently without knowledge of 

 Cuvier's work, gives it as his opinion that it is the Pompilus of Gesner 

 and Ray*. For the present, however, Cuvier considers these two species 

 as distinct, and if he be right in so doing, it is just possible that they 

 may both occur in our seas, and that Jago may have seen one, and 

 Mr. Couch the other. For this reason I have annexed the descriptions 

 given by both these authors. Mr. Couch's specimens were obtained 

 in 1830 and 1831. His notice of them, in the work just referred to, 

 is accompanied by a remark, that there is "an error in Borlase's ori- 

 ginal description, of three-fourths of an inch, instead of three or four 

 inches," and that this " has chiefly led to the continued mistake respect- 



* Loud. May. of Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 315. 



