120 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS CARANX. Cuvier. 



Head convex, slightly sloping. Body compressed. Lateral line armed on its posterior 

 ■part ivith bony plates. 



THE SOUTHERN CARANX. 



Caranx defensor. 



plate xxiv. fig. 72. — (state collection.) 



Characteristics. Depth of the body one-third of the total length, much compressed. With 

 a recumbent spine before the dorsal. No finlets. A large black spot on 

 the opercle. Length 9 inches. 



Description. Form elliptical, much compressed. Length of the head to the total length 

 as two to nine. Scales small, ciliated on their free edges, orbicular ; extending over the gill- 

 covers, and high up on the base of the vertical fins. The lateral line curves upwards, then 

 rather suddenly downwards to the shorter rays of the second dorsal, from which it goes off 

 straight. On its straight portion it is furnished with twenty-five bony plates, commencing ob- 

 scurely at first, but becoming more elevated, and terminating in acute triangular spines, 

 directed backward. On the base of the tail, on each side, are two ridges or crests, obliquely 

 directed towards each other behind. Head convex above, and slightly ridged. Opercle 

 smooth, without scales on the greater part of its surface, with a very slight notch on its 

 posterior margin. Nostrils double, contiguous, oblong, placed just before the orbits ; the 

 anterior closed by a valvular membrane. Eyes moderate, - 5 in diameter, and more than 

 their diameters apart. Teeth numerous, small, acute, hooked in both jaws ; in a single 

 series in the lower jaw ; in a band of several series, of which the exterior are largest, in the 

 upper jaw. Teeth mostly subequal, but in front of the lower jaw, often much longer than 

 the others. 



The first dorsal fin triangular, received in a furrow, and, with a short recumbent spine 

 before it, directed forwards, and nearly concealed in the skin ; the first of the seven spines 

 which compose this fin is longest. The second dorsal arises immediately behind this, com- 

 posed of one spinous and twenty branched rays ; the first ray is nearly half the length of the 

 second, which is longest ; thence rapidly diminishing to the sixth, where the remainder are 

 subequal, somewhat resembling the finlets in other genera of this family. Pectorals very 

 long, falciform, the tips reaching the straight part of the lateral line ; composed of twenty 

 rays, of which the fourth and fifth are longest. Ventrals beneath the pectorals, small, com- 

 posed of one spinous and five branched rays ; the tips reach to the vent, which is an oval 

 slit. Behind the vent are two short, stout, acute spines, connected by a membrane ; these 

 are concealed in a bony cavity, which extends to the second anal. The anal rays are seven- 

 teen ; the first simple ; the others branched, higher in front ; the last elongated. Caudal 

 deeply forked, (when extended, lunate,) with nineteen entire and six accessory rays. 



