82 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Islands. It feeds and fattens on delicate seaweeds, but readily takes the hook when baited with 

 Mussel. It reaches a length (exclusive of the fins) of seventeen inches and a depth of five inches 

 and a half. It is not greatly valued for food. It is sometimes flesh-coloured on the cheeks, green 

 on the back, and reddish-yellow on the body, but when the colours fade Couch states that it 

 acquires a dull sooty tint ; but the colour varies with the season. The fins are blackish-grey. There 

 are ten vertebrae in the abdomen and fourteen in the tail. The other species of this genus are 

 found in the Mediterranean, Cape Seas, and Indian Ocean. 



Box vulgaris, called the Bogne, has remarkable crenulated incisor teeth. It is rare on the south 

 coast of England, but ranges to the Mediterranean, Canary Isles, and Caribbean Sea. Couch's 

 Sea Bream (Pagrus orj)hus], a rare visitor to the Cornish coast, is better known from the Canaries 

 Pagellus erythrinus is a red fish, ranging from the mouth of the Danube to the Canaries, and 

 northward to English shores. Pagellus oweni is another Sea Bream, which, however, is known 

 only from the British seas. The Common Sea Bream (Pagellus centrodontus) is one of the 

 commonest of British fishes, breeding in late autumn or winter. In severe seasons it retires tr> 

 great depths. At the close of summer it assembles in schools, when 20,000, or even 60,000, have 

 been taken in the seine net. When thus abundant it has been sold for half-a-crown the hundred- 

 weight. It feeds indifferently on small fishes, crustaceans, and seaweeds. The Gilthead (Chry- 

 sophrys aurata) is an allied Mediterranean fish, which occasionally reaches the coasts of Cornwall 

 and Devon. All the Sparidse are acutely sensible to change of temperature, which influences their 

 place of habitation in the sea. 



Many of the families which follow are chiefly remarkable for the minor peculiarities of structure, 

 or geographical distribution, to which attention is briefly drawn. 



FAMILY VII. - HOPLOGNATHID.E. 



The Hoplognathidse, which have compressed and deep bodies, have the bones of the jaws 

 forming a sharp dentigerous edge. The three species are limited to the seas of China, Japan, and 

 Australia. 



FAMILY VIII. CIRRHITIDJE. 



The Cirrhitidse are a family with the body compressed and oblong. The branchiostegal rays vary 

 from three (in the genus Nemadactylus) to as many as six. The lower rays of the pectoral fin are not 



TELOK FILAMEXTOSUM. 



