244 
GILl'HEAD. 
Cocks, of Falmouth, has met with a couple of these fishes in 
the fish-market of that town, and his remarks on them were, 
— that one was fat, and rich in colour, the length sixteen 
inches and a half, the breadth six inches ; the second appeared 
sickly, the mouth small, lips pouting and livid, the colour like 
tarnished silver. 
This fish is said to he highly sensible of the impressions 
of much heat and cold, so that when these prevail it retires 
to deeper water j and, according to Pliny, this retreat, in the 
heat of summer, lasts for sixty days. 
^lian represents it as among the most timid of fishes; and 
he gives as a reason for this opinion, that they were stopped 
and caught at the retreat of the tide by a circle of hushes 
stuck upright in the sand, through which they were afraid to 
urge their way. This, it seems, was a mode of fishing adopted 
on the shores of Greece at such times as there was some 
recess of the tide, so that when the sea again ebbed the fish 
were left dry on the shore; and sometlring similar to it is 
practised at this time on shelving shores even in our own 
country. 
The relative dimensions of a British example have already 
been given, but somethnes it is found of a much larger size, 
so as even to approach to the weight of ten pounds. In its 
general outline it bears no distant resemblance to the Common 
Sea Bream, but with a little more prominence of profile. 
Willoughby has noticed that it is thin at the back, and 
Linneeus has copied this particular into his specific character. 
But it is particularly distinguished by its colours, of which 
Lacepede has afforded a glowing description. It shines, says 
he, with the mild lustre of silver and sky blue, the latter, 
which is the colour of its back, being more heightened by 
the silvery tints which arc spread over the rest of its body; 
and both these colours arc rendered the more conspicuous by 
the black of the dorsal and caudal fins, as well as by the 
longitudinal brown lines which pass along the sides. A golden 
hdf circle appears above the eyes, with the concavity directed 
backward; and a dash of black on the gill-cover and origin 
of the tail, form a beautiful contrast with the silver of the 
scales, while a third spot of a similiar kind, but of lively and 
variegated red rests a little above the root of the pectoral tins. 
