﻿HOLBROOK, FISHES OF FLORIDA, GEORGIA, &c. 51 



Genus BRYTTUS, Valenciennes. 



Characters. Body, shaped like Pomotis, intermaxillary, inferior maxillary, vo- 

 merine, and palatine teeth. Tongue smooth. Anal spines, three. 



Bryttus fasciatus. 



Plate V. Fig. 3. 



Specific Characters. Body elliptical; olive brown above, with dusky vertical 

 bars; yellowish, with numerous crimson spots below. D. 9 - 12. P. 10. V. 1 - 5. 

 A. 3-11. C. 17. 



Description. This beautiful little fish is nearly elliptical in form, with both its 

 ventral and dorsal outlines strongly arched. The head is flat, broad between the 

 orbits, with the snout round and broad for the size of the head, and having several pores. 

 The eye is very large, and is placed one diameter of its orbit from the snout, one 

 diameter and a half from the extremity of the opercle, with its lower margin about 

 the median plane of the head, and its upper near the facial outline, though it does not 

 encroach upon it. The nostrils are large ; the posterior and larger, is very near the 

 orbit. 



The pre-opercle is short and scarcely rounded at its angle. The opercle is large, 

 with its broad base in front and its apex behind truncated and furnished with a fleshy 

 appendix. The sub-opercle is* very narrow, but the inter-opercle is broad. These 

 bones, as well as the cheeks, are covered with scales, but the head above smooth. The 

 mouth is very small, the posterior extremity of the upper jaw not reaching to the 

 orbit. The lower jaw and intermaxillary bones are armed with a row of slender, 

 conical, sharp-pointed, recurved teeth, and within this, is a small patch of minute, 

 villiform teeth. The vomer and palate bones are also furnished with small groups 

 of similar minute teeth. The pharyngeal bones are covered with paved teeth of 

 different sizes. 



The dorsal fin is long and very much elevated ; it begins just behind the opercle, 

 terminates at the caudal fin, and has nine spines, with twelve long branched rays. 

 The pectoral is long and has ten rays. The ventral arises nearly with the pec- 

 toral, and ends with it behind; it is much elevated and has three spines and eleven 

 soft rays. The caudal is full, slightly rounded, and has seventeen rays. 



The scales are small, unguiform, though very convex behind and broadest in the 

 vertical direction. The lateral line runs about the superior fourth of the body, 

 and is concurrent with the dorsal arch, to the end of the root of the dorsal fin, when 

 it descends to the median plane. 



