FISHES OF NEW YORK 433 



•western Mexico it attains to tlie length of 3 feet and is used for 

 food. At Woods Hole Mass., it is usually uncommon, but some- 

 times abundant, appearing about the middle of June and re- 

 maining till November. 



De Kay described a specimen from Long Island sound, the only 

 one observed by him. One was taken in a pound net at Islip 

 Aug. 18, 1898, by W. F. Clock. The threadfish enters Gravesend 

 bay occasionally in summer. In captivity it will not endure a 

 water temperature much below 60°. 



Genus vomer Cuv. & Val. 

 This genus is closely allied to C a r a n x , from which it differs 

 ■only in its distortion of form, and in its weak teeth and very low 

 ^ns. Body broad, ovate, very strongly compressed, all the out- 

 lines sharply trenchant; head very gibbous above the eyes, its 

 anterior profile vertical; lateral line strongly arched, its pos- 

 terior part with very weak shields; scales minute, rudimentary; 

 soft dorsal and anal extremely low, not falcate. Young much 

 deeper in form than the adult, all the fins higher, resembling 

 Selene. Warm seas. 



217 Vomer setipinnis (Mitchill) 

 Eorsefish; Moonfish 



Zeus setapinnis Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil, Soc. N. Y. I, 384, pi. I, fig. 9, 

 1815, New York. 



Vomer broiniii Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 189, pi. 256, 

 1833, New York & West Indies; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 127, 

 pi. 25, fig. 78, 1842. 



Argyreiosus setipinnis Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 459, 1860. 



■Selene setipinnis Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 440, 1883. 



Tomer setipinnis Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 436, 1862; Jordan & Gil- 

 bert, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 934, 1896, pi. CXLIV, fig. 392, 1900; 

 Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, IX, 362, 1897; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. 

 XVII, 98, 1898. 



Body oblong, rhombic, less elevated than in Selene vomer; 

 profile anteriorly nearly vertical, highest above eye, snout some- 

 what protruding, belly mostly arched in young; mouth oblique; 

 maxillary reaching vertical from front of orbit. The depth of 

 the body is contained twice in the length in an adult but only 

 from one and one fourth to one and three fourths in the young. 

 The length of the body is three and one fourth times the length 



