i.n 



COUCHES SEA BKEAM. 



Couch's Sea Bream, Zoologist, vol. i, p. 81, 1813. 



Pagrus orphus, Cuvier. 



Guntiier; Cat. Br. M., vol. i, p. 1G7. 

 PagcUun Rondelefii, Zoologist, 1810. 



" " Yakrell; Br. Fishes, 2nd. Sup., p. 4. 



There appears to he only one recorded instance of the 

 capture of this remarkable species in this country, and in 

 many respects it appears to be scarcely known to naturalists 

 in general, although described by Cuvier as a native of the 

 IMediterranean. The figure given by the last-named author, 

 although referred to above, at least in the outline of its 

 physiognomy, is but little characteristic; and the likeness of the 

 Chrysophrys c7'assirostris would better ansAver to the fish wo 

 are about to describe. It was taken on the 8th. of November, 

 1842, with a baited hook, at a rocky ledge termed the Edges, 

 at the distance of three miles south of Polperro, in Cornwall, 

 and was placed in my possession as soon as it was brought 

 on shore. 



Its weight was six pounds. The head thick, the muzzle re- 

 markably so, and rounded; the line of the front sloping 

 suddenly from the forehead to the mouth; ca'cs of moderate 

 size, high, and near the front; nostrils in a slight depression, 

 the superior large and open. Jaws e([ual, not protruding, thi' 

 lower with a well-marked chin. The teeth in front stout, 

 somewhat separate, those of the upper and lower jaws inter- 

 locking. The scales large, and conspicuous on the hinder 

 gill-covers; on the midcUe plate none, and slightly marked on 

 the anterior plate. The head being short the back risers high 

 above it. Lateral line very dark, not greatly curved, and 

 scarcely continued to the tail, the body ending in a defined 

 form at the origin of the caudal fiu, with au incision opposite 



