CAPE VERDE ISLANDS 5 



head. 7 to 9 gill-rakers on lower part of anterior arch, no to 130 scales from occiput 

 to origin of dorsal fin. Dorsal 13-17. Anal 18-21. Origin of pectoral usually nearer 

 to last ray of anal than to head, sometimes equidistant from them. Caudal peduncle 

 strongly depressed. 



Hab. West Indies ; Azores ; Cape Verde Islands ; Tropical West Africa ; St Helena ; 

 Ascension. 



The presence of gill-rakers and the comparatively slender jaws place this species in 

 the genus Belone, Cuv.^ On comparing three examples from the Cape Verde Islands, 

 including the type of B. lovii, Giinther, with six from the West Indies {B. depressa, 

 Giinther), I am unable to find any essential differences, and there is little doubt that the 

 same species is to be found on both sides of the Atlantic. I have followed American 

 authors in identifying this species with B. ardeola of Cuvier and Valenciennes, originally 

 described from Martinique, but a re-examination of the types of this and other species 

 of Gar-fishes described by the French authors is badly needed. The form recently 

 described by Breder as Strongylura longleyi is said to differ from Belone ardeola only 

 in the longer head, of which the depth is less than the width, and the somewhat larger 

 eye. Of the West Indian specimens examined by me some appear to be referable to 

 Breder's species, but I am of the opinion that the study of a large series of specimens 

 would reveal this to be, at the most, a subspecies of B. ardeola. I have also examined 

 twelve examples of B. trachura from Ascension and St Helena, and find that these 

 differ from both West Indian and Cape Verde Islands specimens of B. ardeola only in 

 the slightly higher number of dorsal and anal rays and perhaps in the larger number 

 of predorsal scales. The eye is a little smaller than that of the Cape Verde Islands 

 specimens, but agrees very well with some of the West Indian examples. On the whole, 

 I think it best to recognize two subspecies: B. ardeola ardeola from the West Indies, 

 Azores and Cape Verde Islands;^ and B. ardeola trachura from Ascension and St 

 Helena. The measurements of head and eye, and the fin-ray and scale counts, are 

 shown in the accompanying table. 



1 See Regan, 1911, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) vii, p. 332. 



^ Examples presumably belonging to this subspecies have been recorded from Senegambia (Rochebrune) 

 and St Thome (Osorio). 



