470 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



Moderately compressed; dorsal profile nearly straight to slightly convex; 

 membranous margin of the preopercle fimbriate. Mouth oblique; snout rather 

 pointed, 4.5 in the head; maxillary of moderate width, reaching a little beyond the 

 eye, 2.3 in the head. The two very large canines of the upper jaw, the two smaller 

 ones on either side of the lower jaw in front, and the five or six small teeth near 

 the front of the upper jaw, all lance-shaped, i. e., widened towards the tip and then 

 abruptly pointed. The other teeth, a row down the edge of the maxillary, and 

 an inner row of the lower jaw, all flat and very sharp. Gill-rakers 3 + 8, rather 

 slender, the longest not less than 1.5 in the eye, each with a row of a dozen or more 

 stout-conical spines down the posterior mesial aspect. Scales all small and cycloid ; 

 the soft dorsal and anal very densely and completely covered with scales; pectorals 

 and ventrals somewhat scaled. 



Lateral line becoming straight a considerable distance in front of the vent. 

 Spinous dorsal very weak, the longest spine 2.8 in the head. Anal spines very small; 

 anal high, 2.3 in the head. Pectorals much larger than the ventrals, reaching a 

 third of their own length beyond the latter, 1.3 in the head. 



Color light, much darker above; lower part of 'the head and a region along the 

 lateral line silvery. Spinous dorsal, tips of soft dorsal and caudal rays dusky. 

 A dusky spot on the under side of the pectoral, on the axil, and on the lining of 

 the preopercle. 



The two small specimens (probably the young of Macrodon ancylodon) differ 

 from the larger ones in several respects. The head is relatively much deeper, the 

 lower jaw being more prominent, its lower end forming a sharp angle with the 

 ventral profile. The four or five large lanceolate canines of the lower jaw are 

 larger than the two canines of the upper jaw, and project up over the upper jaw 

 onto the snout. Eye 4.5 in the head. 



Subfamily Sci^eniNjE. 



Nebris Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



Nebris Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1830, 149 (microps). 



Type, Nebris microps Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



Skull excessively cavernous and soft; interorbitals very broad; lower jaw pro- 

 jecting; teeth all villiform, in broad bands; eye very small; margin of the pre- 

 opercle very broad, membranous and fringed. Slits and pores on the upper jaw 

 not conspicuous. Pseudobranchise developed. Soft dorsal, caudal, and anal well 

 scaled. Dorsal and anal spines weak. (Vertebrae 10 + 14.) 



Here represented by Nebris microps. 



