Gilthead

Gilthead, any species of Chrysophrys, a genus of Sea Breams, with about twenty species, from tropical and sub-tropical seas. The body is oblong and compressed, and covered with moderate-sized scales; the spines of the long dorsal can be received into a groove. C. aurata from the Mediterranean, which was kept by the Romans in their vivaria, occasionally strays to our southern coast. It is about a foot long, silvery-grey above with golden bands on the sides, steel-blue below. There is a brilliant-coloured spot between the eye, whence the generic name (= golden eyebrow). The Giltheads feed principally on molluscs.