rOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS, 



111 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



SPARID^. 



THE FOUR-TOOTHED SPARUS. 



Dentex vulgaris, Cuv. et Valenc. Hist Nat. des Poiss, t. vi. p. 220, pi. 153. 



„ Bellonii, Willughby, p. 312, tab. V. 3. 

 Sparus dentex, Linnsus. Bloch, pt. viii. pi. 268. 



„ „ Toothed Gilt-head, PENN.Brit. Zool.vol. 331, but not the plate 



bearing that name, which represents 

 Ray's Bream. 

 „ „ Four-toothed Sparus, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 73. 



Dentex vulgaris, Flem. Brit. An. p. 212, sp. 139. 



Generic Characters. — Body deep, compressed ; dorsal fin single ; head large ; 

 teeth conical, placed in a single row, four in the front, above and below, elon- 

 gated, and curved inwards, forming hooks ; teeth on the branchial arches, but 

 none on the vomer or palatine bones : nose and suborbital space without scales ; 

 branch iostegous rays 6. 



The Four-toothed Sparus is here inserted as a Bri- 

 tish species on the authority of Mr. Donovan, the only 

 English naturalist I am aware of who has recorded its cap- 

 ture on the British coast. In April 1805, a specimen of 

 this fish, two 'feet six inches in length, which had been caught 

 off Hastings, was brought to the London market, and, for- 

 tunately, fell into the hands of the author of the Natural 

 History of British Fishes, who has given a good represen- 



