SEA-BREAMS. 



347 



Cantharus. 



The black sea-bream (Cantharus lineatus), of the British seas, 

 may be cited as a well-known example of the typical genus of the 

 first subfamily, in which the extremities of the jaws are furnished with broad, cutting, 

 and occasionally lobate incisor-like teeth ; while there are no vomerine or molariform 

 teeth, and the lower rays of the pectoral fins are branched. Other well-known 

 genera are Box and Scatharus from the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, and 

 Crenidens from the Indian seas. The black sea-bream, which not unfrequently 



SABGO AND GILT-HEAD (^ nat. Size). 



grows to a length of 15 inches, is common on the British coasts, where it will take 

 both vegetable and animal baits. 



The second group is represented by Haplodactylus, from the 

 temperate South Pacific, in which both jaws are furnished with flat 

 and generally tricuspid teeth ; vomerine teeth being present, but molars wanting ; 

 while the lower pectoral rays are simple. These fish are vegetable-feeders. 



Better known than the last is the third group, containing only 

 the single genus Sargus, with some twenty species from the Mediter- 



Haplodactylus. 



Sargus. 



