152 
industrious and attentive Naturalists of the present day have 
been more fortunate than their predecessors in obtaining a 
knowledge of this species. Risso makes no mention of it ir *. 
bis It: hthyologie deNice; and Cuvier is equally ignorant ot 
it, for his Pagrus Orphus is a very different fish, and he sup- 
poses the Orphe of Rondeletius, to which I have referred the 
fish now described, to be no other than our common 
Bream : the Pagellus centrodoutns of his own work. Tb® 
Dorado Orphe of Risso is pronounced hy Cuvier to he l' 1 * 
own Pagellus Orphus. We see that it is represented 
Rondeletius as solitary and rare, and by Oppian as on y 
locally common; while even Pliny’s remark, that it had on j 
been described hy Ovid, though erroneous in itself, yet lca< ^ 
to the inference that according to his information it was n° 
often caught: these are circumstances which, taken togethe > 
will assist us in understanding the reasons of the dou 
which have hitherto hung over this species. > 
The specimen above referred to is deposited in the nation 1 
collection in the British Museum. 
SHORT SEA BREAM. Pagellus curlus. C. Zoology * 
vol. 2, p. 393. 
On the second of September 1843, a fisherman took wit 
one of his ordinary baits a Sea Bream, which he presen 
discerned to have never before fallen under his notice ; 
in consequence it was transferred to my possession as so 
as he reached the land, which was before sulficient time b 8 
elapsed to allow it to undergo any change. Its length w 8 
one foot two inches, the greatest depth nine inches and I 
half, and, in proportion to the kindred species, it was 
considerable thickness. The under jaw was slightly 
longest, the teeth in front and forward on the sides shg 
conical, and somewhat scattered ; gape moderate. Eye v .^ A 
large, being one inch and three eighths across; nostrils “^s 
depression before the eyes, in this respect and in the ch®* 
for the most part resembling the common Sea Br®'^ 
( Pagellus cenlrodontus) but slightly differing in the «> a q0 
mgs of the head. The body thick and plump; s cale , s ,] |0 
the cheeks and body large, those on the hinder part of j 
body, especially above the lateral line, having well » ia jy 
festooned edges; those on the anterior part less regu^.^ 
so. Lateral line at first mounting, arched, sinking 0 P* ) “ ga , 
the ending of the dorsal and anal fins, waved in its ca*- . [S 
and mounting again as it approaches the caudal hn 
origin a large black spot. Pectoral fins very long, re“ g D) 
to within a short distance of the termination of the ana j 0 g 
being in length four inches and three quarters, and P ga l 
two inches beyond the vent. Commencement of the 
