ACANTIIOPTEUYGIANS. 161 



Labrus, properly so called, and vulgarly, Old Women of the Sea, 



Have the opercula and preopercula without spines or dentations; the 

 cheek and operculum covered with scales; the lateral line straight, or 

 nearly so. The seas of Europe produce several species, the variation of 

 whose colours rarely allows them to he clearly distinguished*. 



L. maculatus, Duham. Sect. IV, pi. ii, f. 1 ; Lab. maculatus, Bl. 

 284? Lab. beryilta, Ascan. Ic. I. From a foot to eighteen inches in 

 length; twenty or twenty-one dorsal spines; blue or greenish above, 

 white beneath; every where chequered with fawn-colour, which 

 sometimes becomes general \. 



L. variegatus, Gm. ; L. lineatus, Penn. XLV, cop. Encycl. 402. 

 One or more clouded, irregular, dark bands along the flank, on a 

 ground more or less reddish; sixteen or seventeen spines in the 

 dorsal, which is marked with a dark spot in front J. 



L. carneus, Bl. ; L. trimaculatus, L., Bl. 289. Reddish; three 

 black spots on the hind part of the back. 



L. turdus, Gm.; Salvian. 87. Green, more or less deep; scat- 

 tered spots sometimes resembling mother-of-pearl, sometimes brown; 

 frequently a mother-of-pearl band along the flank. §. 



L. merula, Gm. ; Salvian. 87. Black, more or less bluish; the 

 dorsal of these three species contains from sixteen to eighteen 

 spines. The last one is only obtained from the Mediterranean ||. 



Cheilinus, Lacep. 



The Cheilines differ from Labrus, properly so called, in the interruption 

 of the lateral line opposite the end of the dorsal; it recommences a little 

 lower down. The scales on the end of the tail are large, and somewhat 

 envelope the base of the caudal. They are beautiful fishes from the In- 

 dian Ocean ^f. 



* With respect to these fishes we can neither trust to the figures of Bloch, nor to 

 the description of Gmelin. 



f The Vieille tacketee was indicated by Lacep., under the name of Labre neus- 

 ti ien. It is possible that the Labrus maculatus, Bl. 294, was a bad figure of it, taken 

 from a dried specimen whose colours had been entirely changed; the Labrus tinea, 

 Shaw, Nat, Misc. 426, and Gen. Zool. IV, pi. ii, p. 499, is a beautiful variety, red 

 spotted with white, but is not the tinea of Lin.; the Lab. ballan, Penn. 44, cop. 

 Encyl. 400, is the fawn-coloured variety; the L. comber, Penn. XLII, cop. Encycl. 

 405, is a red variety, with a suite of white spots along the flank. 



% The only good drawing of this fish is that of Pennant; I suspect the Labi: ve- 

 tuia, Bl. 293, to be an altered figure of the same; it is, in the nuptial season, the 

 Turdus perbelle pictus, of Willoughb. 322, and the Sparusformosus, Shaw, Nat. Misc. 



§ I am of the opinion that the Lab. viridis, and the Lab. luicus, Lin., are vani- 

 ties of this Turdus, which is subject to great changes of colour. The Lab. viridis, 

 Bl. 2S2, is a Julis, Cuv., and differs from that of Linnaeus. 



|| Add, Lab. americavus, Bl. Schn., or Tautoga, Mitch, pi. iii, 1 ; — L.herisse, Lacep, 

 III, xx, 1: — L. large queue, Id. Ill, ix, 3; — L. deux croissants, Id. Ill, xxxii, 2; — 

 L. Diane, Id. Ill, 1. 



N.B. Cheiiion dore, the Ckeil. auratus, Commers., Lacep. IV, 433, or the Labrus 

 inermis, of Forsk. (/•. Hassec, Lacep.), and Voy. Freycin. Zool. pi. 54, No. 2, is 

 merely a very slender Labrus with llexible dorsal spines. 



^1 The Cheiline trilobe, Lacep. Ill, xxxi, 3, the same as the Sparta chlorurus, Bl. 

 260 ;— Sparus radialus, Bl. Schn. 56;— Sparus fascial us, Bl. 257, which is also the 

 VOL. II. SI 



