TABLE OF THE PLATES. IX 



PISCES. Vol. II. Page 



Plate 27. ter. Frg. 1. — Lobotes somnolentus, Cuv. , . . 112 



Fig. 2. DiAGRAMMA ORIENTALE, CuV. . . . 112 



,Fig. 3. UlAGKAMMA CARVIfRONS, CuV. . . . 112 



2nd. Plate 27. ter. Fig. 1. — Glyphisodon koruschi, Cuv. . . .114 



Fig. 2. — Amphiprion laticlavios, Cuv. . . . 113 



Fig. 3. — Amphiprion TUNicATUs, Cuv. . • . 113 



Plate 27. quar. Fig. 1. — Gasterosteus trachurus, Cuv. and Val. . 108 



Fig. 2. — Gastero.stkus Gvmnurus, Cuv. (T/te Stickle-back) . 108 

 Fig. 3. — Gasterosteus noveboracensis, Cuv. and Val. . 108 



Fig. 4. — Gasterosteus leiuros, Cuv. and Val. . . 108 



Plate 28. Fig. 1. — Monocentris Japonica, Cuv. . . . 107 



Fig. 2. — Gasterosteus brachycentrus, Cuv. (T/te Three-spined 



Stickle-back). . . . .108 



Fig. 3. — Oreosoma coniferum, Cuv. . . , 108 



Plate 28. bis. Fig. 1.— Larimus breviceps, Cuv. (Tke Larime)* 



• After all the groups that have been described, and which compose the regular 

 series of Sciaenoides with two dorsals, there still remains some fish of this family 

 which escape all the characters assigned to any of them, and which, should each be- 

 come the type of a peculiar group to which we ought to give a generic name, we will 

 call them if you please anomalous Scirenas ; but remembering that nature acknow- 

 ledges nothing anomalous in what exists, and that there is no anomaly, but rela- 

 tively to the incomplete abstractions of our mind. Cuvier has given the name of 

 Larimus to these fish. They are Scienoides with two dorsals, teeth as the pile on 

 velvet; the front of the cranium does not project fortvard, and the snout is very 

 short ; their pieopeuculum is slightly indented. 



The L. breviceps, Cuv. resembles the Corvina in almost everything ; but far from 

 having the snout swelled and prominent, it has it flat and extremely short as in the 

 Barber, (Serranus anthias) ; so that its eye, which is large, is in the anterior half of 

 the length of the head ; nevertheless, the jaws are cavernous, and there are no teeth 

 in the palate. The length of the head measures nearly the fourth of the whole 

 length, and the height of the body slightly exceeds the length of the head. The 

 opening of the mouth descends backward ; the openings of the nostril are all near 

 the anterior edge of the eye. There is no pore to the lower jaw. The teeth are 

 soft, on a very narrow band. The under orbital is not more distinguished than in 

 the other Sciaenas, and gives the same shelter to a part of the maxillary ; all the 

 head except the lips, and the maxillary is scaly. There are scales even on 

 the lower jaw, but not on the membrane of the gills, which are well cut, and 

 have seven rays ; of which the upper are flat, and the under very small. The 

 preoperculum has the border wide and almost without any apparent indentations. 

 The bone of the operculum terminates in two points, but concealed, obtuse, and so 

 frail as scarcely to be felt. The first dorsal is triangular and is not half the height 

 of the body ; it has ten spiny rays disposed as usual. The second has one spiny and 

 twenty-eight soft rays. The scales ascend between the rays, even to the half of its 

 height. The pectorals are long and pointed; the ventrals wide, and almost equal 

 to the pectorals in length. The anal less in length thau in height, has only seven 

 soft rays, but its second spine is strong as in the corvines. This fin is placed under 

 the middle of the second dorsal, and much behind the anus, which is exactly between 

 the anal and the ventrals, under the commencement of the second dorsal. The caudal 

 is rhomboidal ; it has a line of scales on its middle. The scales on the body are very 

 large: there are about forty-five on a longitudinal line, and fifteen on a vertical. 

 There are some between the bases of the dorsal and the anal. The lateral line is 

 parallel to the back, and one third above, as in the greater part of the Sciaenas. The 



