The Moon-fishes 



fish. This interesting and beautiful little fish occurs on both 

 coasts of tropical America, ranging north to Mazatlan and Cape 

 Cod. It is generally common southward about the Florida Keys 

 and Cuba, and is a food-fish of some importance. 



Head 3$; depth i to 2; D. VI-I, 19; A. II-I, 16; scutes 12. 

 Body oval, much compressed, highest at the elevated bases of the 

 dorsal and anal fins; preorbital very deep; mouth nearly horizontal 

 in adult, very oblique in the young; first rays of dorsal and anal 

 filamentous, exceedingly long, in the young much longer than 

 body, becoming shorter with age. Colour, bluish above, golden 

 yellow below; a dark blotch on opercle; a black spot on orbit 

 above; a black blotch on dorsal and one on anal in front. 



The genus Hynnis is close to Carangus, but has the high, 

 compressed, angular body of Selene, the dorsal and anal lobes 

 not ending in filaments, and the caudal peduncle armed with a 

 few weak plates as in Alectis. There are 2 species in our waters, 

 H. cubensis, a rare species known only from Cuba, and H. hopkinsi 

 recently described from Mazatlan. It attains a length of 2 feet. 



GENUS l/OMER CUVIER fir VALENCIENNES 



The Moon-fishes 



This genus is closely allied to Carangus, from which it differs 

 only in its distortion of form, and in its weak teeth and very 

 low fins. Body broad-ovate, very strongly compressed, all its out- 

 lines sharply trenchant; head very gibbous above the eyes, its 

 anterior profile vertical; lateral line strongly arched, its posterior 

 portion with very weak shields; scales minute; soft dorsal and 

 anal extremely low, not falcate. Young much deeper than the 

 adult, all the fins higher, resembling the next genus. Warm 

 seas; 3 species in our waters. The first of these is V. dorsalis, 

 the hcrsefish, a rare species said to occur on the west coast of 

 Africa, about the Cape Verde Islands, and in the West Indies. 



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