394 PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. [LABRUS. 



It may be observed that Pennant supposed his fish to be the Comber of 

 Mr. Jago*. This, however, must be considered very doubtful, Ray men- 

 tioning nothing respecting Jago's fish, except that it was small, scaly, and 

 of a red colour. Cuvierf regarded it as a red variety of the L. macnlatus, 

 with a series of white spots along the flank. 



* * Dorsal with from sixteen to eighteen spinous rays : 

 form elongated. 



71. L. variegatus, Gmel. (Striped Wrasse.) Ascend- 

 ing margin of the preopercle nearly vertical : dorsal ex- 

 tending a little beyond the anal ; the soft portion scarcely 

 higher than the spinous : branchiostegous membrane with 

 five rays. 



L. variegatus, Gmel. Linn. torn. i. partiii. p. 1294. Don. Brit. Fish. 

 vol. i. pi. 21. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 99. Turdus perbelle pictus, 

 Will. Hist. Pise. p. 322. tab. X. 3. Sparus forraosus, Shaw, Nat. 

 Misc. vol.i. pi. 31. Striped Wrasse, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. 

 p. 240. pi. 45. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. m. p. 337. pi. 57. Blue-striped 

 Wrasse, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 281. La Vieille rayee, Cuv. 

 Reg. An. torn. n. p. 255. 



LENGTH. From twelve to fourteen inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) More elongated than any of the former species : 

 back not much elevated : greatest depth contained four times and one- 

 third in the entire length : thickness rather less than half the depth : 

 dorsal line continuous with the profile ; no depression at the nape : head 

 more than one-fourth of the whole length: teeth numerous, conical, 

 sharp, the anterior ones longest, slightly curved ; about twenty in the 

 upper, and thirty-five in the lower jaw; a few smaller ones behind: 

 distance from the eye to the end of the snout equalling twice and 

 a half the diameter of the eye ; distance between the eyes equalling two 

 diameters; the intervening space very slightly concave: no elevated pores 

 above the orbits: ascending margin of the preopercle nearly vertical, 

 forming with the basal margin a slightly obtuse angle, which angle falls 

 behind the eye and not immediately under it, as in the next species : 

 lateral line high, its course at rather below one-fifth of the depth, bending 

 downwards opposite the termination of the dorsal, but much more gra- 

 dually than in the species of the first section : number of scales in the 

 lateral line forty-six : dorsal commencing in a line with the pectorals and 

 posterior angle of the opercle ; the soft portion scarcely higher than the 

 spinous : anal commencing in a line with the soft portion of the dorsal, 

 but terminating a little before that fin : caudal nearly even, with rows of 

 scales between the rays extending for half their length : pectorals not 

 half the length of the head : ventrals equal to them : 



B. 5; D. 17/12 or 13; A. 3/11; C. 13; P. 15; V. 1/5. 



(Colours.) Back and sides for two-thirds of their depth olivaceous brown, 

 with spots and interrupted longitudinal lines of bluish gray ; remainder 

 of the sides orange: head and cheeks like the back; lower jaw, and all 

 beneath the head, bluish gray : dorsal orange, with a largo oblong space 



* Rnij, Syn. Pise. p. 163. fig. 5. t Rep. An. torn. n. p. 255. note (2). 



