93. EMBIOTOCID.E. 585 



sal. D. IX, 10 ; A. Ill, 7 ; P. 15 ; V. 1, 5 ; C. + 17 +. L. lat. 44 ; L. trans. 

 f- . The back has a slight tawny hue, interrupted as it blends with the 

 white of the sides by five or six indistinct scollopy incursions of the 

 body color, giving the upper part of the side of the fish a marbled ap- 

 pearance." (Goode & Bean.} West coast of Florida. 



(Eucinostomus Jiarenyulus Goode & Beau, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1879, 132, 340.) 



FAMILY XCIIL EMBIOTOCIDJE. 



(The Surf-fishes.) 



Viviparous Labroids. Body ovate or oblong, compressed, covered 

 with cycloid scales of moderate size. Cheeks, operculum, and interoper- 

 culum scaly. Lateral line continuous, running high, without abrupt flex- 

 ure; not extending on the caudal fin. Head rather short. Mouth small, 

 terminal. Jaws with conical or compressed teeth of moderate or small 

 size, in one or two series. No teeth on vomer or palatines; no canines; 

 lower pharyngeals united, without suture, their teeth conical or paved. 

 Upper jaw freely protractile. Lips full, the lower either forming a free 

 border to the jaw or else attached by a frenum at the symphysis. Max- 

 illary short, without supplemental bone, slipping for most or all of its 

 length under the preorbital. Opercular bones entire. Brauchiostegals 

 (or 5). Gill-rakers usually slender; gill-openings wide, the membranes 

 free from the isthmus or very slightly connected; pseudobrauchire 

 present; gills 4, a slit behind th^ fourth. Nostrils round, 2 on each 

 side. Dorsal fin single, long, with 8-18 usually slender spines, which 

 are depressible in a groove. A sheath of scales along the base of the an- 

 terior part of soft dorsal and posterior part of spinous dorsal ; this sheath 

 separated by a furrow from the scales of the body. Anal fin elongate, 

 with 3 moderate or small spines and 15-35 slender soft rays, its form 

 and structure differing in the two sexes. Ventral fins thoracic, I, 5. 

 Pectorals moderate. Caudal forked. Oviduct opening behind the vent, 

 the two apertures always distinctly separated. Air-bladder large, sim- 

 ple. No pyloric coaca. Vertebra 13-19 -f 19-23. 



Viviparous. The young are hatched within the body, where they 

 remain closely packed in a sac-like enlargement of the oviduct analo- 

 gous to the uterus, until born. These foetal fishes bear at first little 

 resemblance to the parent, being closely compressed and having the 

 vertical fins exceedingly elevated. At birth they are from 1 to 2 

 inches in length, and similar to the adult in appearance, but more com- 

 pressed, and red in color. Since the announcement of their viviparous 



