135 



THE SPINED SERRANUS. 



Serranus anthias. Cuv. et VAL. 

 PLATE XVIII. 



Anthias primus, Rondoletius Labrus anthias, Linncem 

 Le Barbier de la Mediterranee, Cuv. et Valen. Hist. 

 Nat. des Poissons, ii. p. 250. 



D. 10 or 111.5; P. 17; V. 1.5; A. 3.7; C. 17. 



THE colour of this beautiful fish is a brilliant 

 red or scarlet, which, on the sides, assumes a 

 golden tint, and on the belly becomes pale, or 

 almost silvery. Upon the sides of the head are 

 three bands of golden yellow, none of which pass 

 the gill covers except the lowest, which reaches 

 nearly to the insertion of the pectoral fin. On 

 the forehead there are transverse bands of bronzed 

 green, and at the base of the dorsal fin along the 

 back there are ten or twelve small spots of the 

 same colour. The fins are all tinted with red and 

 yellow ; the dorsal fin has a border of the latter 

 colour. The spiny part of this fin has sometimes 

 ten, sometimes eleven spines, very strong the 

 third exceeding all the others in length by nearly 

 a half. It is from a supposed resemblance of a 

 portion of this spine to a razor, that the French 



