DISCISSION <>K SPECIKS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 213 



Radial formula: I). 52; A. 44. 



Color, silvery. 



The type was from the coast of Carolina, senl to Paris by M. Bosc. 



Family STROMATEIDyE. 



/ Stromatini, Rafinesqtje, [ndice d'lttiologia Sicilians, 1810, 39. 



Stromateini, Bonaparte, Catologo Metodico, Pesci Europei, 1846, 76 (subfam. of Coryphomida l. 

 Stromatinite, Swainson, Nat. Ili-t. Fishes., etc., is:;:!, n, 177. 

 Stromateina, oi \nn b, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., n. I860, 397. 



Stromateidce, Gili, Ait. Families Fishes, 1872, 8 (No. 83); Trims. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1884, 664.— Jordan and 

 Gilbert, Bull.xvr, O. S. Nat. Mas. 



Scombroids, with body compressed and more or less elevated, covered with small or 

 minute cycloid scales. Profile anteriorly blnnl and rounded. Mouth small. Premaxillaries 

 protractile or not. Dentition feeble; no teeth on vomer or palatines; oesophagus armed 



with numerous horny, barbed, or hooked teeth. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth, (oil 

 membranes either free or more or less joined to the isthmus, (lill rakers rather long. 

 Pseudobranchise present. Cheeks scaly. Preopercle entire or serrate. Lateral line well 

 developed. Dorsal fin single, long, with the spines few or weak, often obsolete; anal fin 

 Long, similar to the soft dorsal, usually with 3 small spines, which are often depressible 

 in a fold of skin; ventrals thoracic or jugular, normally I, 5, but sometimes reduced or 

 altogether wanting; caudal fin lunate or forked. Usually no air bladder. Pyloric caeca 

 commonly numerous. Vertebras more than 10+14. 



The members of this family are, as a rule, surface-dwellers. Among them is the Rud- 

 der fish or Log fish, Deirusperciformis, common everywhere in summer, lurking under float- 

 ing spars ami drift wood, and often swimming under the keels of vessels. The liar vest fish, 

 Stromateus triacantluis, is also found near the surface, swimming under large Medus;e. 

 Apolectus is probably the young of Stromateus and Hoplocoryph is pn »bably that of Schedophi- 

 lus. In all warm seas the young of the various species of this family are sure to occur iu 

 the pelagic surface fauna. 



CENTROLOPHUS, Laeepede. 



CentroUphus, Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv, 441. — Ccvier and Valencienes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ix, 330. — 



(iLNTiiEU, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., II, 402. — Day, Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, I, 110. 

 Pompilus, Lowe, Proc. Zoiil. Soe., London, 1839, 81. 

 Acentrolopkus, Nardo, Prod. Iehth. Adr., 62. 



Stromateids, with elongate body covered with minute scales. Lateral line arched an- 

 teriorly. Mouth moderate or small. Teeth small, in jaws only. Vomer, palatines and 

 tongue toothless. Epibranchial bone of fourth arch with long toothless processes. Dorsal 

 long, continuous, without spinous division. Anal with the tlm anterior rays uubranched, 

 resembling feeble spines. Ventrals thoracic, moderate. Pectorals moderate. Caudal 

 furcate. Bones of vertical fins scaly. Air bladder small. Pyloric appendages, nine or ten. 



This genus is represented by two species recorded from the Atlantic. C. pompilus (Lac.) 

 C. and V., is not very unusual in the vicinity of Nice, though rare elsewhere in the Medi- 

 terranean, and has occasionally been taken in the Atlantic as far north as the British Isles 

 and south to Gibraltar and Madeira. G. britannicus, Giiuther, is known from a single speci- 

 men cast ashore on the coast of Cornwall in 1859. Both forms are well figured by Day, 

 pi. xl. The "Blackfishes" undoubtedly swim at times near the surface, but there is 

 ground for supposing that they live also at considerable depths, especially C. britannicus. 



There are other species catalogued by the Italian and French ichthyologists under the 

 name Gentrolophus, but none of them appear to be other than surface-swimming forms. 

 They are all exceedingly rare and not well understood. 



