FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS, 



111 



ACANTHOPTERYGJI. 



SPARID&. 



THE FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS. 



Dentex vulgaris, Cuv. et VALENC. Hist Nat. des Poiss. t. vi. p. 220, pi. 153. 



Bellonii, WILLUGHBY, p. 312, tab. V. 3. 

 Sparus dentex, LINNJEUS. BLOCH, pt. viii. pi. 268. 



Toothed Gilt-head, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. 331, but not the plate 



bearing that name, which represents 

 Ray's Bream. 



,, ,, Four-toothed Sparus,T)oy. Brit. Fish. pi. 73. 



Dentex vulgaris, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 212, sp. 139. 



Generic Characters. Body deep, compressed ; dorsal fin single ; head large ; 

 teeth conical, placed in a single row, four in the front, above and below, elon- 

 gated, and curved inwards, forming hooks ; teeth on the branchial arches, but 

 none on the vomer or palatine bones : nose and suborbital space without scales ; 

 branchiostegous rays 6. 



THE FOUR-TOOTHED SFARUS is here inserted as a Bri- 

 tish species on the authority of Mr. Donovan, the only 

 English naturalist I am aware of who has recorded its cap- 

 ture on the British coast. In April 1805, a specimen of 

 this fish, two feet six inches in length, which had been caught 

 off Hastings, was brought to the London market, and, for- 

 tunately, fell into the hands of the author of the Natural 

 History of British Fishes, who has given a good represen- 



