370 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



premaxillary teeth small, about 43 developed in the individual 

 examined (sometimes 35 to 40), front of the premaxillaries 

 with four large canines, the posterior pair slightly larger, 

 one third as long as the eye; three large, bladelike fangs 

 on each side of palatines; a large compressed fang at 

 syniphysis of lower jaw, mandible with about 17 moder- 

 ately large, compressed teeth on each side; eye one sixth 

 of length of head, one half postorbital part of head; dor- 

 sal origin at a distance from snout equal to three times length 

 of snout, base of spinous dorsal one third length of head from 

 tip of upper jaw, second spine longest, nearly one third of 

 length of head, fifth spine one half as long as the second, inter- 

 space between first and second dorsal equal to snout and eye 

 combined, base of second dorsal two sevenths of length of head, 

 including lower jaw, longest ray as long as base of fin, last ray 

 one fifth of length of head; ventral a little in advance of spinous 

 dorsal, its distance from the head equal to length of pectoral, 

 its length two sevenths of length of head; anal origin under 

 middle of dorsal base, anal base one fourth the length of head, 

 longest anal ray equal to ventral, last ray one ha'.f the postor- 

 bital part of head; middle caudal rays very short, external rays 

 as long as snout and eye combined; pectoral as long as postor- 

 bital part of head; top of head with minute embedded scales; 

 cheeks and opercles scaly, but interopercle and posterior half of 

 opercle naked. B. VII, D. V-I, 9; A. I, 8; V. I, 5; P. I, 12. Scales 

 15 to 16-112 to 121-13 to 17. 



Color pale green above, soft dorsal yellowish ; anal and ventral 

 fins chiefly pale but basal part of ventral dusky; pectoral and 

 caudal dusky at tip; dark punctulations on spinous dorsal and 

 on upper part of body. The specimen described is no. 30015, 

 Jamaica, in the U. S. national museum. 



An individual 21f inches long was taken at Woods Hole 

 Mass., and is described by Goode and Bean in Proceedings of the 

 U. 8. National Museum, II, 147, 1880. The species ranges from 

 the West Indies to Florida, and occasionally northward in sum- 

 mer to Cape Cod. 



