bay's bream. 119 



has been quoted before, as occurring on the coast of Nor- 

 way ; and Professor Reinhardt, in a paper read before the 

 Royal Society of Natural History and Mathematics of 

 Denmark, has ascertained the northern limits of this species 

 on that coast. 



From this enumeration of specimens and localities, it 

 will be evident that Cuvier, in his history of this fish, was 

 deceived in supposing it exclusively peculiar to the Medi- 

 terranean, and that only a straggler occasionally wandered 

 into the ocean ; and, on the contrary, that Bloch and Lace- 

 pede were perfectly justified in considering this fish a native 

 of the Northern Seas, as well as of the Mediterranean. 



The following description of a recent fish is from the 

 MS. of Mr. Couch : — " The specimen was twenty-three 

 inches in length, and eight and a half inches in depth before 

 the dorsal fin ; the figure much compressed ; head small, 

 sloping in front ; snout short ; angle of the mouth depressed ; 

 under jaw longest ; teeth slender, numerous, sharp, incurved, 

 the inner row of the lower jaw longest ; tongue fleshy ; eye 

 large, rather oval, not far from the mouth ; iris dark, pupil 

 light ; nostril single ; gill-cover with two plates, the mem- 

 brane concealed, seven rays. Measuring along the curve, the 

 dorsal fin begins seven and a half inches from the snout, 

 having three shorter rays like blunt spines, each longer than 

 that before it, the fourth ray longest ; the fin then becomes 

 narrower, and continues slender to within an inch of the root 

 of the tail ; anal fin shaped like the dorsal, beginning farther 

 back, and ending opposite the former ; pectoral fin six inches 

 long, rather narrow, pointing obliquely upwards ; ventrals 

 triangular, with a long pointed scale in the axilla ; tail deeply 

 forked ; lateral line near the back obscure ; head, body, and 

 fins, except the pectorals and ventrals, covered with firmly 

 fixed scales, but a band across the forehead is without them, 



