90 FISHES. 



Anth. saeer, Bl.*, pi. cccxv; Barbier de la Mediterranee, Cuv. 

 and Val. II, xxxi. A most beautiful fish, of a fine ruby red, chang- 

 ing to gold and silver, with yellow bands on the cheek. The third 

 dorsal ray is more than double the height of the others; the ventral 

 fins are very long, and the lobes of the caudal fin terminate in fila- 

 ments, the lower of which is the longest f. 



Merra, 



Serrani, whose maxillary is destitute of scales, but whose lower jaw is 

 covered with small ones. There is one of them found in the Mediterra- 

 nean; the 



Perca gigas, Gm. Of a clouded brown; three feet and more in 

 length; it is also taken in the ocean. 



The Merra?, foreign to Europe, are extremely numerous ; the dentation 

 of the preoperculum in several becomes almost insensible J; but, gene- 

 rally, they can only be distinguished by their colours. 



There are many in which the body is dotted with colours more or less 

 vivid §, and others, in which it is marked with crowded spots ||. 



Some in which it is longitudinally striped ^[, or transversely**, or mar- 

 bled in large patches j"f-, or divided into two colours J J, or, finally, of a 



Bloch had to exactness, that his Anthias saeer does not even possess the character 

 attributed to the genus Anthias of a spineless operculum. 



* This term Saeer was applied by the antients to their Anthias, a large Fish very 

 different from the one here described. See Cuv. et Val. II, p. 255 et seq. 



f Add, Serranus oculaius, Cuv. et Val. II, xxxii, and the other species described, 

 lb. p. 262—270. 



X These, when the muzzle is naked, constitute the Bodianus, Bloch; they only 

 differ from most of the Holocentri of the same author in this diminished dentation. 

 The Holocentri, when the muzzle is scaly, are called Epinepheli, and where 

 this is the case with the Bodiani, they are called Cephalopholes. The Lutjani 

 and Anthias of Bloch differ from the Holocentri, in the absence of the spines on 

 their operculum; in the first ones the muzzle is naked; it is scaly in the others; but 

 all these characters, of but little importance in themselves, are very badly applied to 

 the species. 



§ They are the Jacob Evertsen of the Dutch, such as, Bodianus guttatus, Bl. 224 ; — 

 Cephalnpholis argus, Bl., Schn., pi. 61; — Bodianus boenak, Bl. 226; — Holoc. auratus, 

 lb. 236; — Hoi. caruleo-punctatus, Id. 242, 2; — Labrus punctulatus, Lacep. Ill, xvii, 

 2, &c; and in America, Perca guttata, Bl. 312, or Spare sanguinolent , Lacep. IV, iv, 

 1; — P. maculata, Bl. 313, or Spare atlantique, Lac. IV, v, 1; — Johnius guttatus, Bl. 

 Schn., or Bonaci-arara, Parra, XVI, 2; — Lutjunus lunulatus, Bl. Schn., or Cabrilla, 

 Parra, XXXVI, 1 ; — Bodianus guaiivere, Parra, V; — Holoc. punctatus, Bl. 241, or Pyra 

 pixanga, Marcg. 152; Gymnocephalus ruber, Bl. Schn. 67, or Carauna, Marcg. 147; — 

 Bodianus apua, Bl. 229. 



|| Epinephelus merra, Bl. 329; — Holoc. pantherin, Lacep. Ill, xxvii, 3; — Serranus 

 bontoo, Cuv., Bussel, 128; — Serr. suillus, Buss. 127; — Labrus leopardus, Lacep. Ill, 

 xxx, 1; — Holoc. salmono'ides, lb. XXXIV, 3; — Bodianus melanurus, Geoffr. Eerypt,, 

 XXI, 1. 



^f Sciana formosa, Shaw, Bussel, 129. 



** Holoc. tigrinus, Bl. 237; Seb. Ill, xxvii;— Hoi. lanceolatus, Bl. 242, I;— Anthias 

 orientaiis, Id. 326; — Anth. striatus, Id. 324, which is also the Anth. cherna, BL, Schn., 

 Parra, XXIV; and the Spare chrusomelane, Lacep. 



ft Serranus geographicus, Kuhl, Cuv. et Val. II, p. 322. 



XX Serranus flavo-cceruleus, Cuv., which is the Holoc. gymnose, Lacep. Ill, xxvii, 2; 

 his Budian grosse tete, III, xx, 2, and his Holocentrc jaune et bleu, IV, p. 369. It is 

 also the Set ran bourignon, Quoy et Gaym., Voy. Freycin., Zool., pi. lvii, 2. 



