PLATE XCVI. 
Labrus palmaris varlus, dentibus duobus majorlbus maxilla superioris. 
Jirt. gen. 34. s^/n. 63. 
Labrus Juris. Bloch, t. 287. f. 1 ? 
We are happy to introduce this elegant species of Labrus into the 
British Fauna upon indubitable authority. In the summer of the 
year 1802, we received a specimen of it in a recent state, among 
other fishes caught upon the coast of Cornwall, where they were 
procured from the fishermen by Miss Pocock, and obligingly com- 
municated to us. As a native of the Medirerreanean sea, this fish is 
mentioned by various writers, but as a British species it is perfectly 
new, not having been recorded as such by either Willughby, Ray, 
Borlase, Pennant, or any other writer on the Zoology of this country. 
The Cornish fishermen, we understand, call those fishes young Sturgeons. 
The specimen sent to us rather exceeded tlie length of seven 
inches ;»it was of a slender, or elongated form, and remarkable for 
the elegant distribution of its colours, which were changeable in 
various directions of light; but the most striking peculiarity was the 
broad dentated stripe, extending along each side, from the head nearly 
to the tail, the colour of which was silvery and fulvous, and with 
the rest of the colours, produced an effect equally singular and beau- 
tiful. The dorsal ray contained nine spiny rays, and thirteen soft 
ones : pectoral fin twelve rays : ventral one spiny ray, and five soft 
ones ; anal two spiny and thirteen soft ones ; and the tail thirteen rays< 
This fish has arrested the attention of many ichthyologists among 
the ancients as well as moderns, the former of whom, pronounced it 
