172 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



FAMILY XVI. LABRID^. 



Jaws covered hy fleshy lips. Tongue and palate smooth and toothless. Three pharyngeals : 

 two above, and one beneath; all furnished with teeth, either paved or flattened, or pointed. 

 Body oblong, scaly. A single dorsal, with the anterior rays spinous. An air-bladder. 

 No cacal appendages. 



Obs. This family, as established by Cuvier, comprises three hundred and fifty-one species, 

 arranged under twenty-two genera. They appear to be most numerous in warm latitudes ; for 

 on the coast of New- York we have only the representatives of two genera, comprising a very 

 limited number of species. Other genera will doubtless be found on the coast bordering on 

 the Gulf of Mexico. ^ 



GENUS CTENOLABRUS. Valenciennes. 



Body elongated, scaly. Preopercle denticulated. A band of velvet-like teeth in front, behind 

 the conical teeth in the jaws. Three spinous rays to the anal fin. 



Obs. This genus has been lately separated by M. Valenciennes from the genus Crenilabrus, 

 with which it has many characters in conunon. 



THE COMMON BERGALL. 



Ctenolaerus cerhleus. 

 plate xxix. fig. 93. 



Lahrus, The Burgall at New-York. Schcepff, Beobacht. Vol.8, p. 155. 

 Tautoga cerulea, Blue-fish or Bergall MiTCHiLL, Report in part, p. 24. 

 Labrus chogset. Id. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 403, pi. 3, fig. 2. 

 Crenilabrus burgall. Stoker, Massachusetts Report, p. 78. 

 Le Ctenotabre chogset. Gov. et ViL. Hist, des Poiss. Vol. 13, p. 237. 



Characteristics. Bluish, passing occasionally into reddish or bronze ; often with obsolete dusky 

 bars on its back. Length 6-12 inches. 



Description. Body elongated, compressed ; its depth equalling one-fourth of its length. 

 Scales large, adherent, subquadrate, rounded on the exposed margin, with radiating impressed 

 lines on the concealed surface ; they are found on the upper part of the preopercle and on the 

 opercle. Forty-five or six scales occur in a line from the branchial aperture to the tail, and 

 six above and seventeen below the lateral line. Lateral line near the back, concurrent with 

 it, and of course not much curved ; descending rather suddenly opposite the termination of 

 the dorsal fin. Head gradually sloping ; the facial line slightly convex before the dorsal fin. 

 The opercle with a large and obtusely pointed membrane. Eyes moderate. Nostrils double ; 

 the posterior open, . 2 distant from the eye ; the anterior with a valvular opening. Preopercle 



