444 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



terranean. The most remarkable of the others 

 are: ist. The span, Cuv., which have round 

 teeth placed close together in the manner of a 

 pavement. We have eighteen species. That 

 which is most celebrated for the flavour of its 

 flesh and the beauty of its colours is the gilt- 

 headed sparus ($. auratus, Lin.), which is found 

 in almost all seas. 2d. The bodiani, Cuv., which 

 have a spiny operculum without notches, and 

 the serrani, Cuv., whose operculum is both 

 spiny and notched. These two genera compre- 

 hend the greater number of the sparo'ideae. 

 We have thirty-one species of the first and fifty- 

 four of the second. During life they have all 

 very brilliant colours, and their body is gene- 

 rally spotted or marked with transverse stripes. 

 The s.anihias, Cuv., is remarkable for its beau- 

 tiful red colour. 3d. The scorpcenas, Lin., are 

 divided into four sub-genera, and we have 

 twenty-two species of them. The spines with 

 which their head is covered, and the cirri which 

 hang from their body give them a hideous ap- 

 pearance ; they are vulgarly called sea-hogs. Two 

 species of them are found in our climates, the 

 others are exotic. The sub-genus pterois, Cuv., 

 comprehends fishes which inhabit the fresh wa- 

 ters of India and the Moluccas ; they are of a 

 very singular form, but elegantly coloured; they 



