i 9 4i 



CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 



139 



Eucinostomus argenteus Baird and Girard 



Eucinostomus argenteus Baird and Girard, Smithsonian Inst. 9th Rept., 1854, p. 345 — 



Beesley's Point, New Jersey. 

 Eucinostomus pseudogula Poey, Enumeratio, 1875, p. 53, pi. 1 — Cuba. 

 Gerres jonesii Gunther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. 3, 1879, P- I 5° — Bermuda. 



The young were commonly caught with the seine about Long Key and the 

 flats inside Bush Key reef, and a few were found in the moat at Fort Jefferson. 



In a common color phase Eucinostomus argenteus is olive -buff dorsally with 

 four half-bands of smoke gray on upper part of side. Except for very vague 

 blotches and a few interrupted dusky lines along the scale rows, there is no 

 pattern on the silver side below the lateral line. At times the bars disappear and 

 the fish is merely freckled with small spots of the darker color. The margin of 

 the dorsal fin is dusky, particularly anteriorly. With change in only minute detail 

 this description applies to the other Tortugas species of the genus. 



Table 7 gives the comparative measurements of 15 specimens of E. argenteus. 



TABLE 7 



Measurements (in millimeters) of 15 specimens of Eucinostomus argenteus 



(The figures in parentheses in the third and fourth columns show the number of times the 



depth and head, respectively, are contained in the standard length. Those in the last column 



show how many times the eye is contained in the head.) 



The table shows that this is a slighter fish than E. gula, one in which the depth 

 equals the head instead of materially exceeding it. The last dorsal spine is shorter 

 than in E. gula, entering about twice, rather than one and one -third times, into 

 the length of the 1st soft ray. The dorsal fin, as a result, is much more deeply 

 notched in E. argenteus than in E. gula. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, sometimes straying northward to North 

 Carolina. W. H. L. 



