262 EXPEDITION OF THE "ALBATROSS," 1899-1900. 



Sphyraena forsteri ('i'viek & \'alenciennes. 



Hist. Nat. Poiss., 1829, 3, p. 201 (353) and La Spliyrene dc Forster, ibid., 1831, 7, ]i. 382 (.509). 

 Bleeker, Nat. Tijds. Ned. Ind., 18.52, 3, p. 82. 



Sphyraena loxeuma Fowler, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1904, sit. 2, 12, p. .502, pi. 9, fig. 2 (iiiidcllf). 



One specimen, No. A140, 17| inches long from Suva, Fiji Islands. 



This specimen agrees almost exactly with the description and figure of 

 Sphyraena toxeuma Fowler (loc. cit.). Our specimen has 120 developed scales, 

 but counting to a line across from origin of marginal caudal rays there are only 

 110. 



Head from tip of snout 3.23 in length without caudal, from tip of lower 

 jaw 2.97; eye 4.88 in head, considerably greater than interorbital, 2.28 in snout; 

 maxillary not quite reaching eye, 2.21+ in head; mandible 1.46+ ; dorsal 

 V-I, 10; anal II, 8; scales 13-120-13 (oblique rows counted downward and 

 forward from front of first dorsal to and including the one in lateral line, and 

 from lateral line to front of anal. 



S. toxeuma is based on a specimen which Fowler considers specifically identi- 

 cal with a species described by Bleeker and referred with doubt to 5^. forsteri. 



Fowler considers Giinther's Sudsee figure of a fish from Tahiti as certainly 

 referable to S. forsteri. It shows more longitudinal scales and a much smaller 

 eye. 



S. forsteri of Giinther, Cat., 2, p. 337, is doubtless the same as Bleeker's, 

 so far as the description indicates, but his figure in Sudsee is of a different species 

 with a much smaller eye. The statement in the description that the scales 

 are 90 must be an error, as many more are shown in the figure. 



The description of " Sphyraena fors(eri'"m Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, 3, 

 is based on a drawing made by Forster from a specimen taken at Otaiti, but the 

 description is brief and insufficient and there is no character mentioned to 

 distinguish it. It is stated, however, that the form is exactly that of the Sphy- 

 raena of Europe. In that species the eye is 8 in head and the scales 150 accord- 

 ing to Cuvier & Valenciennes. But nothing indicates that these are .so in S. 

 forsteri. In the additions and corrections in vol. 7 (Hist. Nat. Poiss.), it is 

 stated however that further specimens show that it is really different. Its 

 dorsal and ventrals are advanced, as in S. jclla, in iront of the {)oints of the pec- 



