182 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



105 Albula vulpes (Linnaeus) 



Ladt/fish; Bone Fish; Banana Fish 



Esox milpes Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 313, 1758. 



Butirinus vulpes De Kay, N. Y. Fauna. Fishes, 268, 1842, name only. 



Albula Parrae Cuviee & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. XIX, 339, 1845, 



Albula erytlirocheilos Cuvier & Valenciennes, op. cit. 352, pi. 574, 1846. 



Albula couorliynclius Gunther, Cat. Fisli. Brit. :Mus. VII, 468, 18G8. 



Albula vulpes Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 258, 1883; Goode, 



Fish & Fish. Ind. U. S. I, 612, pi. 218, lower fig. 1884; Bean, 19th Rep. 



Comm. Fish. N. Y. Separate, 42, pi. XXIII. fig. 31, 1890; Jordan & 



EvERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 411. 1896, pi. LXVIII, fig. 179,. 



1900; Smiih, Bull. U. S. F. 0. XVII, 91, 1898; Evermann & Marsh, 



Bull. U. S. F. C. for 1900, 82. fig. 12, 1900. 



Body fusiform, elongate, rounded, its greatest dei)th, at dorsal 

 origin, contained four and two thirds times in total length to- 

 base of caudal fin and equal to distance from posterior nostril 

 to end of head; caudal peduncle rather slender, its least depth 

 about one third of greatest depth of body; head long, conical, 

 the snout rather acutely pointed, length of head about three 

 and two thirds in total; eye moderate, one half of snout, one 

 fifth of head, placed high; mouth inferior, small, the maxilla 

 not reaching to below front of eye; collar of enlarged scales on 

 the nape extending down to the base of the pectoral; dorsal 

 origin about midway between tip of snout and base of caudal,, 

 the base of the fin a little more than one half the length of 

 head, the longest ray as long as the head without the snout, the 

 last ray one third as long as the longest. The pectoral reaches 

 to below the 15th scale of the lateral line. The ventral origin 

 is under the 32d scale of the lateral line; the fin three eighths 

 as long as the head. Anal origin equally distant from base of 

 caudal fin and end of ventral base, the longest ray one third 

 as long as head, the last ray less than one half as long as the 

 longest; caudal fin long, deeply forked, the outer rays equal in 

 length to hight of body. D. Ill, 14; A. I, 8; V. 1, 10. Scales 8- 

 75-8. Bright silvery; upper parts olivaceous; fins pale; axils of 

 pectorals and ventrals dusky. Size large, length reaching 3 

 feet. 



Tropical seas, on sandy coasts, on our coasts ranging north- 

 ward to Cape Cod and San Diego. A valuable food fish, but 



