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ACANTHOPTERYGII. — LABRID^. 
enamelled jaws, resembling the mandibles of a 
Parrotts beak, and partly perhaps on account of 
their vivid colours, in which respect they are in 
no wise inferior to the Wrasses proper. The flesh 
of these is eaten. 
There is one species in the Mediterranean 
{Scarus creticus, Aldr.), which, after much in- 
vestigation, Cuvier has concluded to be the Scarus 
so celebrated among the ancients, that, during 
the reign of Claudius, Elipertus Optatus, the 
Roman admiral, undertook an expedition to 
Greece, in order to procure it for distribution, with 
a view to its naturalization in the Italian seas. 
It is of a blue or a red colour, according to the 
season ; and still inhabits the waters of the 
Grecian Archipelago, where it is eaten in its trail, 
like Surmullet with us. In the West Indies 
there are numerous species of great beauty ; the 
flesh of these is eaten, though it is reputed to 
be peculiarly liable, at certain seasons, to assume 
that poisonous quality which we have described 
in a previous page, as characterizing the flesh of 
the Barracoota. 
Genus Labrus. (Linn.) 
In this extensive genus the operculum is scaled, 
the pre-operculum naked ; both are destitute of 
spines or notches. The outline of the dorsal fin 
is nearly straight, or only slightly hollowed, be- 
tween the spinous and the soft rays ; the former 
are more numerous than the latter, and are fur- 
nished each with a short membranous filament 
behind its points; the caudal and the pectorals 
are rounded ; the jaws are but slightly protrusile. 
