Note 2429 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

Cuvier says that this fish has still the same name in Italy; that it is called the “saupe” in Provence, and the “vergadelle” in Languedoc, being the Sparus salpa of Linnæus; and that it still answers to all the ancient characteristics of the salpa, eating grass and filling its stomach, and having numerous red lines upon the body. It is common, and bad eating, but is no better at Ivica, the ancient Ebusus, than anywhere else. M. De la Roche, when describing the fishes of that island, says expressly that the flesh of the saupe is but very little esteemed there. Ovid, Halieut. l. 122, speaks of it as “deservedly held in little esteem.”