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The Sea-bass

Body oblong, more or less compressed, covered with adherent scales of moderate or small size, which are usually but not always ctenoid; premaxillaries protractile; teeth all conical or pointed, in bands, present on jaws, vomer, and palatines; pseudobranchiae large; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; cheeks and opercles always scaly; preopercle usually serrate; opercle usually ending in 1 or 2 flat spines; nostrils double; lateral line single, not extending on the caudal fin; air-bladder present, usually small and adherent to the walls of the abdomen.