76. POMATOMinai. 447 



rather longer than soft dorsal, much longer than the abdomen, its last 

 rays forming similar fiulets; anal spines strong; ventral fins depres- 

 sible in a groove; pectoral fins very short. Species numerous in the 

 tropical seas. The American species belong to the subgenus or genus 

 OligopliteSj characterized by the toothless pterygoids and the peculiar 

 scales. The dorsal spines are seven in Scnmbroides proper ( Chorinemus 

 Cuvier), the pterygoids are armed with teeth, and in most of the species 

 the scales are normally developed, (^o/z/fyo?, mackerel; scoo?, like.) 



a. No pterygoid teeth ; scales linear, embedded (Oligoplites* Gill.) 



7O7. S. occidentalis (Liiin.) J. & G. Leather-jacket. 



Bluish above, bright silvery below; fins yellow. Body lanceolate, 

 slender. Eye as long as snout, about 4 in head; opercles short. 

 Maxillary reaching beyond middle of orbit. Scales very long and 

 narrow, embedded in the skin, placed obliquely at angles with each 

 other, their appearance unlikeordinary scales. Fins low; pectoral as 

 long as eye and snout; caudal very deeply forked, the lobes equal. 

 Head 5 in length; depth 4. D. V, 1,20; A. II I, 20. Both coasts of 

 Central America, and West Indies, north to ISTew York and Lower Cali- 

 fornia ; not rare southward. 



(Gasterosteus occidentalis Linn. Syst. Nat.: CJiorinemns occidentalis Giiuther, ii, 475; 

 Oligoplites occidentalis Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila. 186J, 1G6.) 



FAMILY LXXVL POMATOMID.E. 



(The Blue-Jlslies.} 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with rather small scales, which 

 are weakly ctenoid. Caudal peduncle rather stout. Head large, com- 

 pressed. Mouth large, oblique. Premaxillaries protractile. Maxillary 

 not slipping under the preorbital, provided with a large supplemental 

 bone; lower jaw projecting; bands of villiform teeth on vomer and pal- 

 atines, those on the vomer forming a triangular patch; jaws each with a 

 single series of very strong, compressed, unequal teeth, widely set; upper 

 ]aw with an inner series of small depressed teeth; villiform teeth on the 

 base of the tongue. Occipital keel strong ; free edge of preopercle pro- 

 duced and serrated. Gill-membranes free from the isthmus, not united. 

 Branchiostegals 7; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Pseudobranchire 

 large. Gill-rakers slender, rather few. Opercle ending in a flat point. 

 Cheeks and opercles scaly. Lateral line present, unarmed. Dorsal 



*Gill. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 166: type Gastcrosteus occidentalis L. 

 , few; OTT/U'r^S, armed.) 



