FISHES OF NEW YORK "> 



specimen from South America. A very curious translation of 

 the earlier descriptions of the a y a is to be found in Lacepede's 

 account of the species, which is given below. The diagnostic 

 characters are stated as follows: 



Nine spines and 18 articulated rays in the dorsal; one spine 

 and eight divided rays in the anal; the caudal crescent-shaped; 

 each opercle terminating in a long and flat spine; the general 

 color red; the back blood color; the belly silvery. 



The author, in another part of his Natural History of Fishes, 

 writes: 



A figure of the aya has been published by Marcgrave, Piso, 

 Willughby, Jonston, Ruysch, the prince of Nassau [Maurice] 

 and Bloch, who has copied the drawing of Prince Maurice. It 

 is found in lakes of Brazil. It frequently reaches a length of 

 one meter, and it is so plentiful that large, numbers of this 

 species are salted or sun-dried for export. It may be very 

 desirable and, perhaps, sufficiently easy to acclimatize this large 

 and beautiful bodianus, the flesh of which is very agreeable to 

 the taste, in the fresh waters of Europe, and particularly in 

 lakes and ponds of France. 



Family 



Grunters 



Genus ORTHOPRISTIS Girard 



Body moderately elongate, compressed, the back arched; head 

 compressed, the snout usually long; mouth rather small, placed 

 low; teeth in jaws in villiform bands, the outer teeth above 

 somewhat enlarged; eye moderate; preopercle with its verti- 

 cal limb straight, finely serrate or entire; gill rakers rather 

 long and slender; dorsal spines rather slender, 12 or 13 in num- 

 ber, the fin usually not much notched; soft dorsal long and low, 

 usually with 15 or 16 rays, the membranes usually naked; anal 

 spines small; caudal lunate. Scales rather small, those above 

 lateral line arranged in series not parallel with it; usually no 

 smaller accessory scales at base of the larger ones. This genus 

 contains a considerable number of species differing from 

 Pomadasis in the long anal fin, the smaller scales, and in 

 the less development of the dorsal spines. Nearly all the 

 species are American. 



