128 PEARL-BLADDERED ARGENTINE. 



parallel ranges : those in front of the lower jaw 

 disposed in a single range : base of the upper jaw, 

 towards the throat, beset or paved with numerous, 

 small, orbicular grinders or bony tubercles : tongue 

 like that of some small quadruped, but on its back- 

 part, or towards the throat paved with similar 

 tubercles to those of the upper jaw : lateral line 

 strait : tail bifid, and scaly J>etween the lobes. 

 Native of the Red Sea. 



PEARL-BLADDERED ARGENTINE. 



Argentina Sphyraena. A. argent ca nitidissima, pinna, aw radii's 



norem. 



Bright- Silvery Argentine, with nine rays in the anal fin. 

 Argentina Sphyraena. A. pinna tud radiis nuvcm. Lin. Syst. 



Nat. Gmd. p. 13g4. 

 Pisciculus Rornae Argentina dictus. Will, ichtfi. p. 229. 



Tins is a small fish inhabiting the Mediterranean 

 sea, and is remarkable for the brilliancy of its ap- 

 pearance, being of a bright silver-colour, with a 

 cast of green on the upper parts, and a purplish 

 tinge on the head : the air-bladder is of as bright a 

 colour as the body, resembling polished silver, and, 

 together with the scales, affords some of the best 

 kind of silvery matter used in the preparation of arti- 

 ficial pearls, being washed off, collected, and intro- 

 duced into the small globes of glass blown for that 

 purpose. The scales of many other fishes however 

 are used in the same manufactory, which is said to 

 be principally carried on in the city of Paris.. 



