556 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



272 Orthopristis chrysopterus (Linnaeus) 

 Pigfish; Hogfish 



Perca chrysoptera LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. XII, 485, 1766, Charleston, S. C. 

 Labrus fulcomaculatus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 406, 1815, 



New York. 

 Prlsti'poma fasciatum CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 285, 



1830, New York, young; GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 301, 1859, 



New Orleans. 

 Hatmiilon fulvomaculatum DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 84, pi. 7, fig. 21, 



1842, New York; HOLBROOK, Ichth. S. C. 156, pi. 22, fig. 2, 1856. 

 Pristkpoma fiilvomaculatuin GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 301, 1859, 



copied from HOLBROOK. 

 Orthopristis duplex GIRARD, U. S. Mex. Bd. Surv. Zool. Fish. 15, pi. 9, figs. 



1 to 4, 1859, Texas. 

 Pomadasys fultomaculatus JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 551, 



1883. 

 Orthopristis chrysopterus BEAN, Bull. U. S. F. C. VII, 142, pi. Ill, fig. 11, 



1888; JORDAN & FESLER, Kept. U. S. F. C. 499, 1893; BEAN, Bull. Aiji. 



Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 366, 1897; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 1338, 1898, pi. OCX, fig. 541, 1900. 



Body oblong, compressed, not much elevated. The depth of 

 the body is one third of the length, which is three and one third 

 times the length of the head; head long; snout conic; mouth 

 low and small, the maxillary barely reaching to the nostrils;' 

 outer teeth slender and rather short; eye placed high, 4^ in 

 head, nearly midway in its length, its diameter two thirds depth 

 of the broad preorbital; dorsal and anal entirely naked, with a 

 sheath of scales at base; anterior spines of dorsal higher than 

 the posterior, which are lower than the soft rays; anal spines 

 short, graduated; pectoral moderate, reaching past tips of ven- 

 trals; caudal forked, the upper lobe the longer. Length 1 foot 

 to 15 inches. 



D. XII, 16; A. Ill, 12; Lat. 1, 75; pyloric caeca six. 



Light brown, silvery below; sides with numerous orange 

 colored and yellow spots; those above the lateral line in oblique 

 series, those below in horizontal; vertical fins with similar spots; 

 head bluish with yellow spots; angle of mouth and gill mem- 

 branes with orange. 



The pigfish ranges along the Atlantic coast from New York 

 southward; adult individuals are rarely seen even as far north 

 as New Jersey, but the young are common. 



