231 
COUCH’S SEA BREAM. 
Couch’s Sea Bream, 
Pagrus orphus, 
Zoologist, vol. i, p. 81, 1843. 
CuviEa. 
Gunthee; Cat. Br. M., toI. i, p. 467. 
Zoologist, 1S46. 
Taeeellj Br. Fishes, 2nd. Sup,, p. 4. 
Pagellus Bondeletii, 
There appears to be only one recorded instance of the 
capture of this remarkable species in this country, and in 
many respects it appears to be scarcely known to naturalists 
in general, although described by Cuvier as a native of the 
Mediterranean. The figure given by the last-named author, 
although referred to above, at least in the outline of its 
physiognomy, is but little characteristic ; and the likeness of the 
Chrysophrys crassirostris would better answer to the fish we 
are about to describe. It was taken on the 8th. of November, 
1842, with a baited hook, at a rocky ledge termed the Edges, 
at the distance of three miles south of Polperro, in Cornwall, 
and was placed in my possession as soon as it was brought 
on shore. 
Its weight was six pounds. The head thick, the muzzle 
remarkably so, and rounded; the line of the front sloping 
suddenly from the forehead to the mouth; eyes of moderate 
size, high, and near the front; nostrils in a slight depression, 
the superior large and open. Jaws equal, not protruding, the 
lower with a well-marked chin. The teeth in front stout, 
somewhat separate, those of the upper aud lower jaws inter- 
locking. The scales large, and conspicuous on the hinder 
gUl-covers; on the middle plate none, and slightly marked on 
the anterior plate. The head being short the back rises high 
above it. Lateral line very dark, not greatly curved, and 
scarcely continued to the tail, the body ending in a defined 
form at the origin of the caudal fin, with an incision oiiposite 
