Description of a New Bream. 



xxvn 



racy or oversight in the examination, or perhaps some accidental difference between 

 the specimens themselves. 



The recent recovery of the original drawing of the fish described in the ' Linnean 

 Transactions ' (vol. xiv. p. 78), and a comparison of the account of this specimen in 

 my original memorandum with a figure and description of an undoubted specimen of 

 Kay's bream, which has also passed under my inspection, will now furnish sufficient 

 ground for the formation of a correct opinion whether they are not sufficiently distin- 

 guished to be regarded as specifically different. 



pinna-squamata. 



The specimen was about 17 inches long, and, exclusive of the dorsal fin, b\ inches 

 deep ; the snout blunt, sloping suddenly above the eyes ; angle of the mouth de- 

 pressed ; teeth numerous, sharp, incurved, the four in front of the under jaw very long. 

 The body deep, thin ; two dorsal fins, the first having flexible rays, the second long 

 and narrow, and there is no reason to suppose that the appearance of there being two 

 fins is owing to a rent or injury between them ; the tail very deeply lunated ; the pec- 

 torals long ; ventrals double, or having a wing, by which means it seemed to have 

 four ventral fins ; the anal fleshy and somewhat expanded at the origin, obscure in 

 its progress towards the tail ; no lateral line ; a broad band from eye to eye ; the co- 

 lour blue, deeper on the back than on the belly ; covered with large scales, as well 

 the body as the fins, so that the dorsals and anals seem like an extension of the body ; 

 and it became impossible to count the rays of the dorsal fins. 



It may contribute to the history of this species to add that it was taken by a ser- 

 vant girl, who saw it at the edge of the water in the act of dying, and seized it with 

 her hands ; as if it had wandered into a climate not congenial to its nature. It was 

 sent to me a few hours after its capture, when it is probable the colours had grown 

 more dull than during life. 



Kay's Bream (Brama Raii, Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' vol. i. p. 117, 1st ed.) The 

 specimen was 23 inches in length, 8-g- 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, not far from the angle of the 

 mouth ; iris dark ; pupil light : nostrils single. Measuring along the curve the dor- 

 sal fin begins 1\ inches from the snout, having three shorter rays, like blunt spines, 



