334 mr. j. couch on ausonia cuvieri. [June 12, 



below, and between these portions a pair widely apart and more fan- 

 shaped. 



Colour along the upper line of the head and body dark, with a 

 cast of blue ; all besides bright silvery ; and I was informed that 

 when first obtained, as the sun shone upon it, the brilliancy was such 

 as to dazzle the eyes. Pectoral fins, caudal, and for the most part 

 the anal brilliant red, the first ray with its membrane of the latter 

 thicker than the others ; the dorsal also a brilliant red, but the first 

 three rays of this fin, with their membrane, firmer and redder than 

 the others ; the membrane between the other rays of this fin bor- 

 dered with dark. The upper pharyngeal bones were numerous, 

 hooked, slender, sharp, projecting, in, as usual, two pair of beds. 

 Air-bladder large. Nothing in the stomach ; but its inner surface 

 studded over with projecting fleshy processes. I was not able to 

 ascertain the weight of this fish; but while by the fisherman who 

 obtained it it was judged to be about forty pounds, by others it was 

 believed to be at the least double that weight. 



In the account which Rafinesque gives of his example of this fish 

 he makes the absence of a lateral line to be a character of the genus, 

 with the vent situated under the pectoral fin, and having on its an- 

 terior border a valve to cover it. His specimen was obtained in the 

 middle of June, in the year 1808, uear Solanto, in Sicily; and in 

 describing it he especially notices the absence of teeth and the limited 

 extent of the mouth ; the branchial rays four-; rays of the dorsal 

 and anal fins fourteen, of the pectoral twelve, in which probably he 

 did not count such as were of small size, or they might have been 

 lost. And he adds that it was called by the people " Luvaru Im- 

 periale," from the resemblance of its colour in some particulars to 

 that of the fish Luvaro, which is the local name of the Sparus pa- 

 gellus ; but whether this name was imposed on it at the moment or 

 from long usage he does not say. 



Dr. Gulia, in his enumeration of the fish of his native island 

 Malta, says nothing of this species, except in a MS. note written in 

 a copy of the work kindly presented to me by himself (Tentamen 

 Ichthyologise Melitensis) ; but in another work (Repertorio di Storia 

 Naturale, 1864) he mentions it on the authority of Professor 

 Terafa, who appears to have seen even more than one example in that 

 island. 



But it is to Nardo, in his Inaugural Thesis, that we are in- 

 debted for a more extended account of this fish, as well of its ex- 

 ternal as of its internal structure, together with a figure, which, if 

 not in the best style of art, is sufficiently exact to assure us of the 

 form of the species. It appears, however, to have been drawn after 

 the specimen had passed under the hands of the preserving artist ; 

 but in referring to his description I shall notice only those promi- 

 nent particulars which throw some light on my own description 

 and observations. It was iu September 1826 that his example was 

 caught, by some boys with their hands as it wandered among some 

 rocks close to the shore in the harbour of Palestrina ; and at the 

 time when he wrote, it was preserved in a private museum at that 



