556 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



272 Orthopristis chrysopterus (Linnaeus) 



Pigfish; Hogfish 



Perca cM-ysoptera Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. XII, 485, 1706, Charleston, S. 0. 

 Lairus fnlvmiiaculatus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 406, 1815, 



New York. 

 Pristipoma fasciatum Ctjvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 285, 



1830, New York, young; Gunther, Oat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 301, 1859, 



New Orleans. 

 Haemulon fnlvom^culatum De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 84, pi. 7, fig. 21, 



1842, New York; Holbrook, Ichth. S. C. 156, pi. 22, fig. 2, 1856. 

 Pristipoma fulvomaculatum Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 301, 1859, 



copied from Holbrook. 

 Orthopristis duplex Girard, U. S. Mex. Bd. Surv. Zool. Fish. 15, pi. 9, figs. 



1 to 4, 1859, Texas. 

 Pomadasys fulvomaculatus Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 551, 



1883. 

 Orthopristis chrysopterus Bean, Bull. U. S. F. O. VII, 142, pi. Ill, fig. 11, 



1888; Jordan & Fesler, Kept. U. S. F. C. 499, 1893; Bean, Bull. Am. 



Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 366. 1897; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 1338, 1898, pi. CCX, fig. 541, 1900. 



Body oblong, compressed, not much elevated. The depth of 

 the body is one third of the length, which is three and one third 

 times the length of the head; head long; snout conic; mouth 

 low and small, the maxillary barely reaching to the nostrils; 

 outer teeth slender and rather short; eye placed high, 4^ in 

 head, nearly midway in its length, its diameter two thirds depth 

 of the broad preorbital; dorsal and anal entirely naked, with a 

 sheath of scales at base; anterior spines of dorsal higher than 

 the posterior, which are lower than the soft rays; anal spines 

 short, graduated; pectoral moderate, reaching past tips of ven- 

 trals; caudal forked, the upper lobe the longer. Length 1 foot 

 to 15 inches. 



D. XU, 16; A. Ill, 12; Lat. 1, 75; pyloric caeca six. 



Light brown, silvery below; sides with numerous orange 

 colored and yellow spots; those above the lateral line in oblique 

 series, those below in horizontal; vertical fins with similar spots; 

 head bluish with yellow spots; angle of mouth and gill mem- 

 branes with orange. 



The pigfish ranges along the Atlantic coast from New York 

 southward; adult individuals are rarely seen even as far north 

 as New Jersey, but the young are common. 



