ACANTIIOPTERYGIANS. 109 



FAMILY III. 



SCIENOIDES, 



The Scienoides, lias close relations to the Perches, and even present 

 nearly similar combinations of external characters, particularly in the in- 

 dentations of the preoperculum, and in the spines of the operculum ; but 

 both vomer and palatines are without teeth; the bones of the cranium and 

 face are generally cavernous, and form a muzzle more or less gibbous. 

 The vertical fins are frequently somewhat scaly. 



Some of the Scienoides have two dorsals, and others have but one; 

 among the former we first find the genus, 



SCLENA, 



Whose common characters consist of a gibbous head, supported by ca- 

 vernous bones, two dorsals, or one deeply emarginate, whose soft part is 

 much longer than the spinous ; a short anal, a dentated preoperculum, an 

 operculum terminating in points, and seven branchial rays. If it were 

 not for the absence of the palatine teeth, these fishes would resemble the 

 Perches. The entire head is scaly ; their natatory bladder is frequently 

 furnished with remarkable appendages, and the stones in the sac of the 

 ear are larger than in most fishes *. We divide this genus as follows : 



ScijEna, Cuv. 



The Scienoides, properly so called, have the spines of the anal weak; 

 neither canini nor cirri. 



Sc. umbra, Cuv. ; Peisrey of Languedoc ; Fegaro of the Genoese ; 

 Umbrina of the Romans, &c. Six feet and more in length; nume- 

 rous branched appendages on each side of the natatory bladder. A 

 good fish, but it has latterly become rare on the coast of Europe j. 



Otolithus, Cuv. 



The Otolithes have the anal spines, as in the preceding, weak, and no 

 cirri; some of the teeth are elongated hooks, or true canines; the nata- 

 tory bladder has a horn on each side which is directed forwards. They 

 are found in America and India J. 



* This determination of the genus Scisena is in accordance with the opinion of 

 Artedi ; it has been variously modified by Linnaeus and his successors, but in our 

 opinion not veiy successfully. 



f Artedi having confounded it with the Scicena nigra, it is only latterly that it has 

 been again determined. See my Memoir upon this Fish in the Mem. du Mus., tome 

 I, p. 1 ; — Add the Maigre du Cap, or Labre hololepidote, Lacep. Ill, xxi, 2 ; — the Mai- 

 gre brule, which is the Perca ocellata, L., or Centropoiue ceille, Lacep., the Scicena im- 

 berbis of Mitchill, and the Lutjan triangle, Lacep. Ill, xxiv, 3. 



% Ot. ruber, Cuv., or the P&che pierre of Pondicherry ; Juhnius ruber, 151. , Schn., 

 p. 17; — Ot. versicolor, Cuv., Russel, II, cix; — Ot. regalis, Cuv., Johnius regalis, BL, 

 Schn., or Labrus squeteague, Mitchill, Ann. New York Lye. I, ii, G; — Ot. rlwmboi- 

 dalis, or Lutjan de Cayenne, Lacep. IV, p. 245; — Ot. striatus, Cuv., or Guatucupa, 

 Marcgr., Braz. 177, and several others described in our fifth Vol. of Icthyology. 



