236 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



tribe. There are records for Gloucester (several specimens), Magnolia, Danvers, 

 Salem, and South Boston (a specimen 2 inches long), in Massachusetts; for Saco 

 Beach (fry of about 1 to 3 inches) and Casco Bay, in Maine. Fry have even been 

 reported once or twice as far east as Halifax, Nova Scotia, but most of these records 

 date back many years and none of the fishermen of whom we have inquired know 

 it at all north of Cape Cod. It appears more often, if irregularly, at Woods Hole, 

 where young fish are sometimes common in August and September. 



91. Lookdown {Selene vomer Linnseus) 



Hoesehead; Moonfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1S96-1900, p. 936. 



Description. — The very high second dorsal (about 22 rays) and anal fins (about 

 20 rays) of the lookdown, and their peculiar falcate outline, with the second ray 



Fig. 111. — Lookdown (Sdene vomer) 



much the longest and the next 4 or 5 rays successively shorter and shorter, make 

 distinction between it and the moonfish easy. Hardly less characteristic is its 

 peculiar form, for it shares with the moonfish a deep, rhomboid, but very thin flat 

 body (the fish is only about one and one-half times as long as deep) , abruptly truncate 

 in front, with slightly concave profile, but tapering rearward to a slender caudal 

 peduncle. The mouth is set so low and the eye so high that the expression of its 

 face is very characteristic. When adult the first dorsal is reduced to 6 or 7 short 

 inconspicuous spines, only the first 3 of which are connected by a membrane, 

 and the ventrals are very small; but in fry up to 4 or 5 inches long some of the 

 spines of the first dorsal are greatly elongate, the ventrals are much longer, and the 



