SEA-BREAMS AND GURNARDS 



289 



genus Serranus is much more widely distributed, and its members, as a rule, are 

 brighter in colour. The comber (£>. cabrilla), for example, is orange-yellow with 

 blue longitudinal stripes, while the dusky perch (S. gigas) is a rich reddish brown 

 with two oblique stripes on the gill-covers running downwards and backwards. 

 Both these species are British, the first being resident. A third species occasionally 

 straying into British waters is S. scriba, of the Mediterranean, which is striped 

 and streaked with blue and spotted with purple. 



Belonging to another genus, with two species, is the stone-bass {Poly prion 

 cernium), of which the colour is greyish yellow, marbled or blotched. Like Serranus, 

 this genus has one dorsal fin in place of two, and the tail is not forked. The 

 European species occurs in the Mediterranean and on the west coast of Europe, the 

 other being found in the South Pacific. Another British fish of the perch tribe is the 

 richly coloured Dentex vulgaris, gorgeous in a gold and silver and purple and blue 





t%> 



SAITHIRINE GURNARD. 



Sea-Breams. 



livery, and recognisable at a glance by the four front teeth in each jaw, of which 

 the outer pair are much the larger. This is really the Mediterranean representative 

 of a genus widely distributed in the Atlantic, Indian, and North Pacific Oceans, 

 and especially numerous on the south coast of Africa. 



The sea-breams (Sparidce) frequent the coasts of all tropical and 

 temperate seas, conspicuous amongst them being the gilt-heads 

 which take their name from the golden crescent between the eyes. Among several 

 species, the silvery Pagrus auratus occasionally strays into British waters. All 

 the sea-breams are deep and compressed fishes of brilliant coloration, many of them 

 being scarlet or rose-coloured. In common with numerous other fishes, they retire 

 in winter to the deeper parts of the sea, to return to shallow water as the weather 

 becomes warmer and the spawning season commences. 

 Gurnards and The gurnards and their relatives the bullheads may be met with 



Bullheads. j n a j} seas> generally near the coast and at the bottom. In the second 

 genus the species known as Coitus quadricornis ranges from the British shores to. 

 vol. 11. — 19 



