Volume 7, Plate XXVII / Ichthyology (Fish)

Many-Spined Polyprion

Polyprion cernium

Reaching five or six feet and sometimes a hundred pounds, with esteemed white, tender flesh, this fish is common in the Mediterranean, frequenting rocky bottoms as deep as three thousand feet off Nice and reported also from the Pacific. Its slightly flattened head bears numerous rugged protuberances, a strongly toothed preopercle, and a sharp opercular ridge; old fish are uniform greyish brown with a whitish-bordered tail, the young clouded with dark spots.