210 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



origin under tlie pectorals less fartlier liackward tliau in C. cqHisetiii, is one of the best means 

 of sei^aratiug the young of the two forms, and corresjmnds also to one of the best distinc- 

 tive characters of the adult. The small individuals of both species not only have the 

 l)reoperculani provided with spines, but also a scapular spine and supraorbital spine on 

 each side. The hu'ger specimens luive the body very elongate, but are at the same time 

 less thick, without being compressed, as they are in advanced age. The dorsal is rela- 

 tively as low as in C. equhetls: in the adult, its origin at a point scarcely behind the anterior 

 margin of the eye; in the young, above the posterior margin of the preoperculum; in those 

 still younger, between the preoperculum and the opening of the gills; in C. Mppurus, adult, 

 above the i)osterior margin of the pnpil; in the younger specimens of the same sj)ecies, 

 above the branchial oi)euing, and so on. The system of coloration is a nuirked character 

 in the different ages. 



Family BRAMID.^. 



liramida, LoWE, Pise. Syu. Maderensium, etc. (1834) ; Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 1836, 197. — Gill, Arrange- 

 ment Families of Fishes, 1872, i); Century Dictionary, 659. — Jordan and Gilbekt, Bull, xvi, U. S. Nat. 

 Mus.,1883, 455 (in part). 



Bramini, Bonapakte, Catalogo Metodieo, 1846, 76 (Siiljfam. 132). 



Bramaformes, Bleeker, Teutameu, 1859, xxii. 



Scombroids with short, oblong, compressed body. Head rounded ; snout, obtuse, con- 

 vex; mouth wide, oblique. Vertical tins, long, elevated, anteriorly continuous, with but 

 few spinous rays. Ventrals thoracic. Teeth on vomer and palatines. An exterior row of 

 strong teeth in the jaws. Premaxillaries protractile. Branchiostegals 7. Pseudobranchiaj 

 present. 



THE POMFRET illrama Ivaii.) 



A single genus Brama, of which Taractes (without spinous portion to dorsal and anal) 

 is the young. 



They are strictly pelagic, and it would seem probable that they descend to considerable 

 depth. 



BRAIVIA, Schneider. 



Brama, Schneider, Bloch's S.vstemalcbthologiiic, 1801, 1.98 (type, B. alropoa Scliii.).— Risso. Hist. Nat.Eiir. 



M(5rid. iii, 433.— Cc vier and Valexciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vii, 281.— GCntoer, Cat. Fisb. Brit. Miis., 



II, 408.— Jordan and Gilbert, Bull, xvi, U.S. N. M., 455. 

 Taractes, Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, 82.— PoEY, An. Soc. Esp., v, 148.— GCntiier, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 



II, 410. 



Pterycomiua, Fries, Vet.Akad. Haudl., 1837. 



Body compressed and more or less elevated, covered with rather small scales; cleft of 

 the mouth very oblique, with the lower jaw longest. Dorsal and anal lius elongate, the 



