DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 237 



of the eye. The first spiue is less than oue-half as long as the second, which is about two- 

 thirds as long as the eye. The anal spines are slender. The longest anal ray equals the 

 postorbital part of the head. The pectoral reaches to below the origin of the soft dorsal; 

 its length equals that of the head without the snout. The ventral begins slightly in ad- 

 vance of the origin of the pectoral and it is nearly as long as the pectoral, its length one- 

 quarter of the total without caudal. 



Kadial formula: I), ix, i, 9; A. iv, 7; V. i, 5; P. i, 15. Scales 2/29/7. 



The colors have faded ; traces of purplish brown on the upper ijarts and the head; 

 spinous dorsal with a dark triangular blotch on its upper portion extending from the second 

 to the sixth spine, involving less than half the height of the membrane. 



Specimens were obtained by the Albdtross from station 2314, in 32° 43' N. lat., 77° 51' 

 W. Ion. (off South Carolina), at a depth of 159 fathoms; from station 2397, in 28° 42' N. 

 iat., 80° 36' W. Ion. (between the Delta of the Mississippi and Cedar Keys, Florida), at a 

 depth of 280 fathoms; from station 2401, in 28° 38' 30" N. lat., 85° 52' 30" W. Ion. (be- 

 tween the Delta of the Mississippi and Cedar Keys, Florida), at a depth of 142 fathoms; 

 from station 2417, in 33° 18' 30" N. lat., 77° 07' W. Ion. (off' Cape Fear), at a depth of 95 

 fathoms; from station 2418, in 33° 20' K. lat., 77° 05' W. Ion., at a depth of 90 fathoms; 

 from station 2425, in 30° 20' 24" N. lat., 74'= 46' 30" W. Ion., at a depth of 119 fathoms; 

 and from station 2426, in 30° 01' 30" N. lat., 74° 47' 30" W. Ion. (off North Carolina), in 93 

 fathoms. 



Family SERRANID^E. 



Serranidw. Richardson, Icbth. Erebns and Terror, 1848, iv (in part). — Gill, Arr. Fam. Fi-shes, 1872 (in 

 part.); Century Dictionary, 5573. — Jord.\n & Gilbert, Bull, xvi, U. S. Nat. Mus., 526. — Jordan and 

 EiGENMANN, Bull. U. S. F. C, VIII, 1888, 329, 433. 



Serranina. GOnther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus.,i, 57, 81-212. 



Percoidea with the body oblong, compressed, and covered with scales; the head com- 

 pressed, and the cranium normal. The premaxillaries uot retractile behiuil, under the sub- 

 orbitals. The spinous part of the dorsal flu about as long as the soft, or longer, and with 

 3 anal spines developed. {GiU.) 



CENTROPRISTIS, Cuvier. 



Ccnti-opristcs, CuviER, R^gne Animal, ed. 2, 1829. 



Cenlropi-islis, CuviER and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iii, 1829, 56. — Jordan and Eigenmanx, Bull. U. 



S. Fish Com., viii, 1888 (1890), 390. 

 Triloburus, Gill, Cat. Fish. East Coast U. S., 1861, 30. 



Serrauoid fishes, with comparatively elongate body. No sui^plemental bone to the max- 

 illary. Teeth small, in broad bands. Top of head naked, supiaoccipital crest prominent, 

 encroaching somewhat on the frontal region. No hooked spinules on the lower limb of the 

 preoperculum. Scales large. Dorsal spines slender, the third a little elevated; some of 

 them with dermal iXi)peudages or filaments. Caudal fin not lunate, ending in 3 bands, the 

 middle rays extending beyond the outer ones. 



Two species of this genus have been found m deep water — one, Ccntropristis plciiro- 

 spilus Gunther*, from the sea between Australia and New Guinea, near the Ki Islands, at a 

 depth of 140 fathoms; and Centropristis investigatoris, Alcock,t from off" the Madras coast, 

 in 100 fathoms. 



ANTHIAS, Schneider. 



Anthills, Bloch, Syst. lehth., 1792. — Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii, 249.— GCnther, Cat. 



Fish. Brit. Mus., i, 88.— Jokd.vn, Cat. Fish. N. Amer., 83. 

 Aijlopim, Rafinesque, Caratteri, etc., 1810, 52. 



Serranoids with strongly compressed body, closely resembling Serrauus, but having the 

 lateral line placed very high and concurrent with the back, becoming abruptly straight and 



* Challenger Report, I (Part vi), 37, pi. xvi, tig. D. 

 t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, (vi), September, 1890, 199. 



