396 MITCHILL ON THE FISHES OF NEW-YORK, 



LABRTTS. 



Generic character. 



Teeth strong and sub-acute. The grinders sometimes, as in the 

 Sparus family, convex and crowded. Lips thick and doubled. Rays 

 of the dorsal fin, in certain sorts, lengthened into soft or ragged 

 processes. Gill-covers unarmed, and scaly. 



1. Weak Fish. (Lahrus squeteague.) With even tail, speckled back 

 and sides, one or more sharp long front teeth in the upper jaw, and 

 yellowish ventral and anal fins. 



One of the most numerous and useful of the New-York fishes ; par- 

 licularly during the season when the cold is not considerable. Size 

 commonly from a foot to fifteen inches ; but often grows larger. I 

 weighed one, for example, that measured twenty-seven inches in length, 

 by seven in depth, and found him heavier than six pounds. 



He never goes into fresh streams, or ponds, but, within the limits of 

 the salt water, is taken in almost all the places where rock fish is caught. 



The weak fish is so much the companion of the basse, that I once 

 gave him the specific name of comes. 



He resembles the rock in the following particulars: 1. A wide 

 mouth, with small teeth in the lips and jaws ; 2. Patches of teeth at the 

 bottom of a capacious throat ; 3. Two dorsal fins, the foremost of 

 which has eight rays ; 4. A lateral line passing into the caudal fin ; 5. 

 A nearly corresponding number of sixteen rays in the pectoral, and 

 seventeen in the caudal, fins ; 6. Double nostrils, and an elongated 

 lower jaw ; 7. A projecting head ; and, 3. Large pale yellow eyes on 

 its sides. 



But there are no tangible serrse on the gill-cover. The divisions at 



