FAMILY SCIENID^E. 71 



GENUS OTOLITHUS. Cuvier. 



Two stout canine teeth in the upper jaw, and occasionally in the lower. Two small pores 

 on the lower jaw, or entirely wanting. Two dorsal fins. Air-bladder bifid in front. Anal 

 spines feeble or obsolete. Body elongated. 



THE WEAK-FISH. 



Otolithus regalis. 



PLATE VIII. FIG 24. 



Johnnius regalis. Schn. Scuteeg und Scuppaug. Schcepff, 1. c. p. 169. 



Roccus comes. Mitchill, Report in part on the Fishes of N. Y. 1814, p. 26. 



Weak-fish, Labrus squeteague. Id. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 396, pi. 2, fig. 6. 



VOtolithe royal, 0. regalis. Cnv. et Val. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 5, p. 67. 



Sciena (Otolithus) regalis. Richardson, Fauna Bor. Am. Fishes, p. 63. 



0. regalis, Squeteagite, Weak-fish. Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 33. 



Characteristics. Bluish above, varied with dusky. Ventrals and anal orange. Ventrals with 

 five branched rays. Length one to two feet. 



Description. Body elongate, compressed. Head slightly arched over the eyes. Scales 

 moderate, oval, transparent, minutely striate and denticulate, covering the gill-covers and 

 summit of the head to the end of the nose. The lateral line curved slightly, but not concur- 

 rent with the back ; it may be traced to the tips of the caudal rays. Nostrils double, placed 

 in a triangular cavity anterior to the eye ; the one nearest the orbit vertically oblong, the other 

 round and subtubular. Eyes large, the lower jaw longest, furnished with a row of distant 

 acute subequal teeth, and in front with two or three rows of smaller ones. Similar but 

 smaller ones above in the intermaxillaries, and from one to three long fang-like teeth in front 

 of the upper jaw. Ranges of minute teeth on the pharyngeals, to which is attached an orbi- 

 cular process, which is festooned on its margin. Branchial rays seven : the first branchial 

 arch with long flat processes, strongly dentate on their inner edges ; the others with short 

 alternate tubercles. Opercle with two obsolete flattened points, scarcely discernible through 

 the membrane. Preopercle with a minutely crenate membranous margin. 



Dorsal fins two ; the first triangular longer than high, of eight simple feebly spinous rays, 

 of which the first is shorter than the second ; the third longest. Equidistant between this and 

 the succeeding fin, is a short feeble isolated spine. The second dorsal fin is long and sube- 

 qual ; the first ray is short, and so closely in contact with the next as to be separated with 

 difficulty. The third is longest ; and from this, the ravs insensibly diminish to its termination 

 somewhat beyond the anal. The pectoral fins extend as far as the middle of the first dorsal, 

 and, with the exception of the first, which is simple, contain seventeen branched rays. Ven- 

 tral fin stout, with one simple and five very ramose rays. The anal fin short ; the third ray 



