Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/202

188 enamelled jaws, resembling the mandibles of a Parrot's 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, .), which, after much investigation, 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.

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, between the spinous and the soft rays; the former are more numerous than the latter, and are furnished each with a short membranous filament behind its points; the caudal and the pectorals are rounded; the jaws are but slightly protrusile.