758 S C A 
rusty brown; the jaws and outer edge of the fins are green ; 
the tail is even. The shape of this species is an oblong-oval. 
The jaws are bifid in the middle, thin at the edge, and in 
colour of a blue-green: the lateral line is double, one near 
the back, the other in the middle, terminating at the end of 
the first: the pectoral fins are of a rusty-brown; the ven¬ 
tral and anal violet, but the dorsal and caudal are yellowish, 
the latter with long lanceolate scales at the base. It is an 
Arabian fish. 
5. Scarus sordidus.—This also is of a ferruginous brown 
colour, but the jaws are reddish; fins very dusky, and the 
tail is even. Like the last, it inhabits Arabia. The body is 
narrower and oblong; the jaws are cleft, a little moveable, 
not covered by the lips, and thin at the edge; there are two 
straight lateral lines, one beginning where the other ends; 
the central fins are violet; the dorsal brown, with nine simple 
rays; the anal fins have three simple rays, and the pectoral 
with one, which, like the caudal, are yellowish. 
6. Scarus harid.—In this the tail is forked, but the base is 
covered with scales in the middle.—It inhabits Arabia. The 
body beneath is of a pale violet; the scales are large and lax. 
The head and throat naked; the jaws are eminent and cleft, 
the crenate edges in the lower sometimes enlarging into two 
subulate teeth ; the upper lip is the longer of the two, with 
a sort of canine tooth on each side; the lateral line is straight, 
double, one near the back, beginning at the nape, and reach¬ 
ing to the end of the dorsal fin, the other in the middle, 
reaching from the middle of the side to the tail; the pecto¬ 
ral fins are yellowish; the dorsal and anal are of a pale 
violet; the tail also is lunate and violet. 
7. Scarus schlosseri.-—This species is of a golden colour, 
with five brown spots on each side; the back is brownish; 
the tail is nearly even.—This fish is an inhabitant of Java; 
the size of the Cyprinus rutilus; the body is compressed, 
broad, covered entirely with large scales. The head is thicker 
than the body, and flatfish above; the eyes are large, and 
the iris tawny; the mouth is ascending; the lower jaw is the 
longer of the two; the palate is bony, rough, and the arch 
carinate; the tongue is flat, pointed, the tip loose, the pec¬ 
toral fins are pointed: the ventral triangular, joined to the 
belly by a perpendicular membrane, with a lanceolate scale 
on each side; the dorsal fin is a little fleshy at the base, ex¬ 
tending half way down the back. 
8. Scarus viridis.—This species, as its name denotes, is of 
a green colour, but the lateral line is interrupted.—It is found 
in the Japanese seas, and is the size of a carp; the head is 
straight, the scales large, and each bordered with deeper 
green than the ground colour; the tail is slightly sublu- 
nated. 
Such are the Linnsean species given by Gmelin: the fol¬ 
lowing are added by other naturalists :— 
9. Scarus Cretensis, or green scarus, is yellowish beneath, 
with very large scales, ramified lateral line, and sublimated 
tail. The general length of this fish is about twelve inches; 
the body is broad and sloping, the scales are extremely 
large, the lateral line is ramified on every scale over which it 
it passes.—It is a native of the Mediterranean, and particu¬ 
larly about the coast of the island of Crete, whence it derives 
its specific name: it is, however, found in the Indian seas. 
10. Scarus croicensis, or rose-red scarus, with a silvery 
abdomen, is mentioned by Bloch as about ten inches long; 
it is shaped like a carp; the colour is of a strong red rose, 
with silvery abdomen ; in some specimens there are two 
longitudinal silvery stripes on the body; the scales are large: 
the fins pale; the tail is slightly lunated.—It is a native of 
the Indian seas. 
11. Scarus psittacus, or greenish scarus, marked with 
yellowish lines, and with the edges of the fins, abdominal 
band, and variegations of the head, blue. The jaws of this 
species are blue; the fins purple, edged with blue; the back 
is straighter in the outline than the abdomen ; the tail rising, 
spotted with blue, and subfurcated; the lateral line is double 
and ramified; the eyes are small.—It is a native of the 
Arabian seas. 
12. Scarus purpuratus, or the dull-green scarus, is marked 
R U S. 
with three longitudinal serrated purple bands on each side, 
and has a blue abdomen. It is called by Forskal the purple 
scarus. It is a very elegant species, and much allied in its 
habits to the labrus. The body is abruptly lanceolate; 
the purple stripes on the body are serrated at their upper 
edges; the pectoral fins are green, and marked at the tip by 
a large lunated, marginal black spot; the dorsal and anal 
fins are marked towards the base by a purple stripe; the 
ventral fins are blue; the tail is marked with longitudinal 
purple spots, and on each side by a purple stripe; the shape 
is slightly rounded; the lateral line is ramified; the scales 
are lax, as in the mullet.—It is a native of the Arabian seas, 
and was first observed by Forskal. 
13. Scarus niger.—This species is ovate-oblong, and is 
called the blackish-brown scarus with red lips, and the 
margins of the fins are of a greenish-blue.—It is found in 
the Arabian seas. 
14. Scarus trilobatus, or variegated scarus, is characterized 
by its very distinctly trilobate tail; the upper jaw is longer 
than the lower; the colours of the body are various; it has 
two spiny rays, and sixteen soft on the dorsal fin.—It is a 
native of the American seas. 
15. Scarus rostratus.—Scarus with elongated jaws, though 
not mentioned by naturalists in general as of the scarus tribe, 
and though it differs from them in no other respect, except 
in having the jaws much elongated ; the lower jaw is rather 
longer than the upper; the eyes are large; the head without 
scales; the dorsal and anal fin are rather short; the tail is 
very large and lunated; and near it is a transverse band of 
a deep colour; no lateral line could be perceived; on the 
dorsal fin are eight spiny rays. This fish is named by 
Cepede, Fleurieu, in honour of a gentleman of that name, 
a celebrated member of the National Institute of Frauce. 
Scarus, the name of a sea-fish, being, in the Linosean. 
system, a species of the labrus, (see Labrus Scarus), of 
which there have been several remarkable things asserted by 
the ancients, some with and some without any foundation ; 
as that it ruminates, or chews the cud like our oxen, &c. 
This Aristotle, Pliny, Oppian, and others affirm, but none 
of them of their own personal knowledge; they seem to 
have had it by hearsay, or else, as authors often do, to have 
taken it from one another; for the thing is not true in fact 
It has been said also to be the only fish which feeds on 
herbs; and it is so far true that it does feed on them, and 
that few other fish do, but not that no others feed in the same 
manner. It has been reported, also, that this is the only fish 
that sleeps. Gesner would persuade us, that not only this, 
but many other fish, also sleep. But this does not seem to 
be the fact; for this race of animals have no eye-brows, nor 
any membrane to close and cover their eyes with, as other 
creatures have, to which nature has allowed sleep. 
The later naturalists have described three species of this 
fish: Rpndeletius two, the scarus onias, and scarus varius; 
and Bellonius one, which is different from both these, and 
seems to have been the very fish the ancients knew by this 
name. 
The scarus onias is a sea-fish, found among rocks and 
near the shores. Its scales are large and very thin, and its 
back of a blackish-blue; its belly of a fine white, and is of 
an oblong and rounded shape; its teeth are broad, not 
pointed, and resemble those of the human jaws; its eyes 
also are large, and its head over the eyes of a fine strong and 
clear blue. 
The scarus varius is of the shape and figure of the former, 
but its eyes and its belly are of a purple colour; its tail is of 
a fine clear and strong blue, and the rest of its body is of a 
greenish or blueish-black; its scales are spotted and speckled 
with dusky spots; its mouth is moderately large, and its teeth 
broad in the upper jaw, and somewhat pointed in the under: 
from the head to the tail, all along the ridge of the back, 
there runs a row of short spines, which are connected at their 
bottoms by a membrane; and in the middle of the belly there 
are several purple spots. It is a very beautiful fish. Rondelet. 
de Pise. lib. v. cap. 3. 
The scarus Bellonii, which differs from both these, and 
seem 
