ACANTHOPTERYGIANS. 1G5 



They are taken in the Indian Ocean, and the flesh of certain spe- 

 cies is held in the highest estimation*. 



XlRICIITHYS, ClW., 



Are fishes resembling a Labrus as to form, but are much compressed; the 

 front descends suddenly towards the mouth in a trenchant and almost, ver- 

 tical line, formed by the aethmoid and the ascending branches of the inter- 

 maxillaries. Their body is covered with large scales ; the lateral line is 

 interrupted; the jaws are armed with a range of conical teeth, the central 

 ones longest; the pharynx is paved with hemispherical teeth; the intes- 

 tinal canal is continuous with two flexures without caeca; no cul-de-sac to 

 the stomach; a tolerably long natatory bladder. Until we arranged them 

 otherwise, they were always placed by naturalists among the Coryphaenae, 

 from which they greatly differ, both internally and externally. They ap- 

 proximate most to Labrus, only differing in the profile of the head-}-. The 

 greater number have a naked head. Such is 



X. novacula; Coryphcena novacula, L. ; Rondel. 146; Salv. 117. 



(The Razor Fish of the Mediterranean). Red, variously striped 



with blue. The flesh is esteemed J. 



Some of them have a scaly cheek §, and others are distinguished by 

 small scales [|. 



Chromis^", Cuv., 



Have the lips, protractile intermaxillaries, pharyngeal bones, dorsal fila- 

 ments, and port, of a Labrus; but the teeth of the pharynx and jaws re- 

 semble those of a card, and there is a range of conical ones in front. The 

 vertical fins are filamentous, those of the belly being even frequently ex- 

 tended into long threads; the lateral line is interrupted; the stomach 

 forms a cul-de-sac, but has no caeca. 



C. vulgaris; Sparus chromis, L. ; Petit Castagneau, Rondel. 152. 

 (The Common or Black Coracinus of the antients). A small ches- 

 nut-brown fish, taken by thousands in the Mediterranean. 



C. niloticus; Lab. niloticus, the Bolti, Hasselq. 346; Sonnini, 



pi. lv, f. 2; — G. cceruleus, Lacep. Ill, pi. v, f. 1, or Acarauna longirostris, Sevastianof, 

 Nov. Act. Petrop. "xiii, t. XI; — G. variegatus, Lacep. lb. f. 2. 



Gomphosus, from the Greek gompltos, a wedge. 



* Renard, Poissons de la mer des Indes, part II, pi. xii, f. 109. Commerson, 

 however, says that the cceruleus is but indifferent food. 



f The sharp edge of the head of the Coryphaenae is owing to the interparietal 

 crest; their scales are small and soft; their cffica numerous. See Mem. du Mus. II, 

 324. 



% The Coryph. Uneolata, Rafin., Caratt. 33, does not differ from the novacula; but 

 the Novacula coryphcena, of Risso, is nothing more than the Centrolophus. The 

 Coryph. ccerulea, Bl. 176, is a Scarus. — Add, Cor. psitlacus, L., and some new species. 



§ Coryphcena pmladac/yla, Bl. 173, or Blennius maculh, 5, &c. Ankarstrom, 

 Stockh. Mem. pi. iii, f. 2. Linnaeus has confounded it with the five-toed fish of 

 Nieuhof, Willoughb. App. pi. viii, f. 2, which is a mere Pilot-fish, thereby inducing 

 M. de Lacepede to make his genus Hemipteronotus of it, whose characters by no 

 means correspond to this Xirichthys. 



|| Rason Vecluse, Quoy and Gaym. Voy. Freycin. Zool. pi. lxv, f. 1. 



^f Chromis, Chremis, Chreme, Greek names of an unascertained fish. 



