294 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



and location. The caudal is of moderate size and emarginate in a very characteris- 

 tic curve. The pectorals are short and rounded and situated below the gill 

 opening. The ventrals are reduced to one short, stout, blunt spine, mostly imbedded 

 in the skin and connected with the general outline of the abdomen by a sort of 

 dewlap. 



Color. — Described as olive gray, the back spotted with violet, the sides with 

 two more or less distinct dark crossbars, one under the forward end of the second 

 dorsal, the other under its last ray. The eye is surrounded by a ring of blue or 

 greenish dots and streaks. The first dorsal is clouded with bluish, the second dorsal 

 is pale yellowish marbled with sky blue and olive green, the base of the pectoral 

 is bluish with olive dots, and the anal is like the soft dorsal. 



General range. — Both sides of the tropical Atlantic, including the Mediterra- 

 nean; casual north to Ireland on the European coast, and to the southern coast of 

 Nova Scotia and to Banquereau Bank off Canso on the American coast. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — ^A specimen of this warm-water fish was 

 taken at Annisquam, near Gloucester, Mass., many years ago. It is very rare, even 

 at Woods Hole," and only an accidental stray from the south in the Gulf of Maine. 



THE FILEFISHES. FAMILY MONACANTKIDiE 



Filefishes recall triggerfishes in general form, being similarly deep and compressed 

 with the same peculiar profiles, small terminal mouths, projecting incisor teeth, 

 eyes set high up, very stout dorsal spines, short gill openings, and in the fact that 

 the ventral fin is either wanting altogether or is reduced to a single short blunt 

 movable spine at the end of the very long pelvic bone, which makes a keel-like con- 

 tinuation of the general ventral profile of the head and is connected with that of 

 the belly by a dewlap of skin. They differ from triggerfishes in having but one 

 dorsal spine instead of three, and in the fact that the scales are so minute that the 

 skin is velvety to the touch although very tough. Most of the species are tropical 

 or subtropical and none has any commercial or sporting value. Adults of the 

 three species known from the Gulf of Maine are separable as follows: 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE FILEFISHES 



1. Dorsal spine barbed; gill opening nearly vertical; ventral spine present 2 



Dorsal spine smooth; gill opening very oblique; no ventral spine 



Orange fllefish {Alutera schcspfii), p. 296 



2. First soft dorsal ray much elongated and filamentous; caudal peduncle without lateral 



hook-like spines; ventral flap extends only very slightly behind the ventral spine 



Filefish {Monacanthus hispidus), p. 295 



First soft dorsal ray not elongate; caudal peduncle with lateral spines, ventral flap 

 extends far behind tip of ventral spine Filefish {Monacanthus ciliatus), p. 296 



" The "leather jacket" (.Balisles vetula) is more common at Woods Hole and is recorded from Nantucljet, but as yet it has 

 not been taken in the GuJf of Maine. It is separable from the triggerflsh by the fact that the anterior rays of the soft dorsal and 

 the comers of the caudal are elongated and filamentous, and by the presence of 2 blue bars on each side of the head. 



