128 Ctenoid Acanthoptekes. FISHES. Spaboids. 
Family XII. — SPAROIDS. — (Plate 8, fig. 41, 42.) 
In this family the dorsal is single, with the spinous 
part scaleless or nearly so, falling into a furrow when 
not in action, and equal to or surpassing the articulated 
portion in extent. The pectorals and ventrals are 
acute, and the caudal, which is not connected with the 
other vertical fins, is crescentic on its distal edge. 
The mouth is terminal, and when it is in the act of 
closing, the maxillary glides beneath the edge of the 
generally high preorbitar. The jaws are but little 
protractile, and the snout does not project beyond 
them. The family differs from the Sciasnoids in the 
bones of the skull not being cellular externally, and 
from the Scimnoids, Percoids, and Sclerogenids, in 
having neither armature nor strong serratures on the 
gill-covers. The branchiostegals are generally six in 
number, sometimes five, and more rarely seven. 
There are no palatine teeth. The scales are peculiar, 
being described by Agassiz as thin, broader than they 
are long, with the lines of structure parallel to the 
posterior or free border ; and circulating round a centre 
of growth which is situated near that edge, they 
become longitudinal and parallel to the sides as they 
proceed towards the base. 
Several genera are remarkable for their flatly-rounded posterior 
teeth or molars, of which are — Sargus ; Charax ; Chrysophrys ; 
Pagrus ; Pagellus ; Sphcerodon (Ruppell) ; and Lethrinus. 
The other genera are — Peniex; Synagris (Gunther); Pentapus; 
Canfharus; Box; Ohlata; Boxaodon (Guichenot); Scathai'us; 
Crenidens ; Girella (Gray) ; Tephrceops (Gunther) ; Pachyme- 
topon (id.) ; Proterocanthus (id.) ; Dipterodon ; Doydixodon 
(Valenc.); and Gy mnocrotaphus (Gunther). 
The following species are British — the Gilt-head 
(Chrysophrys aurata), the Braize or Becker (Pagrus 
vulgaris)., the Orphus (P. orphus), the Pagel or Saro- 
fino (Pagellus erythrinus), the Bezugo (Pagellus 
acarne), the Sea Bream, (Pagellus centrodoutus), the 
Sparus (Sparus dentex), the Choupa (Cantharus gri- 
seus), the Bogue (Box vidgaris). None of them are 
much prized for the table. According to ^lian and 
Oppian, the Sar (Sargus Rondeletii) is a polygamist, 
and fights desperately to protect his harem from 
other males. He constructs, they say, a bower of the 
leaves of marine plants, into which he compels his 
females to enter, and goes in last himself. Modern 
observation has neither proved nor disproved these 
reports. The Sparulus of the Romans, a fish held in 
small esteem, was, according to Cuvier, a Sparoid. 
Martial, comparing his own diet with that of a more 
luxurious feeder, says, “ You eat oysters from the 
Lucrine ponds, I merely suck in a mussel ; you dine 
on turbot, I on a Sparulus only.” What the Sparus 
of the ancients was has not been as yet ascertained, 
but it was said to be more nourishing than most other 
fishes, and to be, like the Scarus, such delicious food, 
that the gods themselves did not throw away its excre- 
ments. Such praise does not belong to any of the 
family found in the British seas ; but Dr. Mitchill, 
speaking of an American Sparoid called the Sheep’s- 
head (Sargzis ovis), says, that it is the most highly 
esteemed of New York fishes, and fetches the highest 
price, with the exception of fresh salmon and trout. 
Nothing, he says, can exceed boiled Sheep’s-head in 
the opinion of a New-Yorker. This fish attains a 
weight of eighteen pounds. It is in season from the 
beginning of June till the middle of September; and 
is taken with the seine. As it also bites at a baited 
hook, fishing parties are elaborately got up for the 
capture of this desirable fish ; and the incidents of 
the sport furnish the successful fishermen with topics 
of conversation to a distant date, much skill being 
required to allure and secure a Sheep’s-head. Dr. 
Mitchill laments sorely that the want of a sufficient 
supply of ice often allows this valuable fish to spoil ; 
but, as in the half century that has elapsed since Dr. 
Mitchill wrote ice has become more abundant in the 
New York markets, the Sheep’s-head is not only 
brought cool and fresh to the hotels of that city, but 
is transported also to Philadelphia and more distant 
quarters. The fisheries established on the coasts of 
Long Island for its capture, are of considerable im- 
portance in an economical point of view. 
The Porgee (Sargus rhomhoides) is no less esteemed 
at the Bermudas, than the Sheep’s-head is at New 
York. Fishing for Porgee is the chief amusement of 
the Bermudians, and parties go out to the coral reef of 
North Rock, forty miles from the shore, to enjoy it. The 
same species frequents the coasts of the United States, 
and the name of Porgee is extended to other Sparoids 
of America, such as the Pagrus argyrops, which is 
esteemed to be a most excellent fish, and is termed by 
Dr. Mitchill, the Big Porgee. The Chrysophrys of the 
Greeks, and Aurata of the Latins, is the Gilt-head of 
English fishermen. The most esteemed Gilt-heads 
were. Martial says, those which had fed on the shell- 
fish of the Lucrine Lake. Sergius Grata is said by 
Pliny to have invented Oyster-nurseries at Baia before 
the Marsian war ; not to pamper his own appetite, but 
as a mercantile speculation. The same inventive genius 
found out hanging baths, and furbished up villas for 
sale. He first also pronounced the Lucrine oysters to 
be the best, and extolled the Basse taken between the 
two bridges of the Tiber, the Turbots of Ravenna, and 
the Murries of Sicily. His surname of Orala arose 
from his cultivation of the Gilt-head in ponds. The 
British shores were not yet subdued, says Pliny, when 
Sergius rendered the Lucrine Lake famous. The Sand- 
wich oysters were consequently then unknown. 
Family XHI.— MONOIDS (Moen, dm). 
Plate 8, fig. 43, 44. 
This group was considered by Cuvier to be merely a 
subdivision of the Sparoid family, from which its 
members differ chiefly in the protractility of the mouth. 
They have short villiform teeth on the jaws. Their 
premaxillary pedicels are long, and permit these bones 
to be thrust directly forwards when there is a corre- 
sponding length of mandible; but when the latter bone 
is abbreviated, then the premaxillaries incline down- 
wards as the mouth opens, being bridled by the soft 
parts, and compelled to move in that direction. Some 
genera have no teeth on the palate, others have small 
ones on the vomer. The ventrals are situated under 
