OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 121 



engineer that it would have required nine strikes of a 

 hammer weighing twenty five pounds to drive an iron bolt 

 of similar shape and size to an equal depth in the same 

 hull. 



FAMILY XV. MAIGRE FISHES (Scicenida). 



Body elongate, compressed, mostly clothed with serrated 

 scales ; teeth disposed in villiform bands, sometimes with 

 supplementary canines ; the pre-operculum unarmed and 

 without a bony stay, branchiostegal rays seven in number ; 

 air-bladder usually present, frequently with branching 

 diverticula. 



The Maigre or Scicena (Scicena aquila), No. 54, is the 

 only member of this family that can with certainty be 

 included among our British species, the reported capture of 

 the Umbrina (Umbrina cirrhosa\ on one occasion, at the 

 mouth of the river Exe, not being accepted as trustworthy. 

 In shape and size the Scicena bears no slight resemblance 

 to the Giant-Perch (Serranus gigas), already described ; 

 but from which and all other members of the Percoid family 

 it may be readily distinguished, from the absence of 

 conspicuous spines and serrations on the opercular bones. 

 Its colours during life are, according to Couch, very brilliant. 

 The general surface of the body being a rich bronze-yellow, 

 the antero-dorsal region and head light green, the first 

 dorsal fin brilliant pink, the remaining fins being darker 

 with perhaps a tinge of red. After death the brilliant 

 colouration of the body soon fades to a coppery or neutral 

 tint, leaving the fins a more or less uniform dull red. 

 The Scicena is in the habit of congregating in shoals, and it 

 has been observed that it possesses the faculty of emitting 

 sounds, audible at the surface of the sea from a considerable 



