80 GENUS BOTHROLiEMUS. 



pyloric contraction. The intestine runs nearly to the anus, whence it is reflected to the diaphragm, 

 and then returns to end in the rectum, with a small rectal valve. There are fifteen long, slender 

 coecal appendages. The spleen is sub-pyramidal, three-sided, and is placed far back on the right 

 side. The air-bladder is large and long, as it extends beyond the abdominal cavity ; its walls are 

 thin ; it is small and pointed before, but has two small horns behind. The kidney is large in front, 

 and has a long, slender ureter. 



Habits. The Seriola cosmopolita is so great a stranger to Carolina, that not 

 much can be said of its habits. It visits our shores during the hottest season of 

 the year, in the months of July and August, but only occasionally, and often at 

 the interval of two or three years ; it is never abundant, as seldom more than half 

 a dozen are taken in a summer, and always in very deep water, and at a distance 

 from the shore. Parts of small fish are generally found in the stomach. 



Geographical Distribution. According to Cuvier and Valenciennes, this 

 animal has the widest geographical range, it being common to the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, and hence the specific name cosmopolita. They furthermore ob- 

 serve, that " they have received it from Brazil and New York " ; yet it is not men- 

 tioned by Dr. Mitchill, in his Fishes of New York ; nor does Dr. DeKay, who is 

 later and much better authority, consider it as an inhabitant of that State. 



GENUS BOTHROL^MUS.* — i7o/&rooA-. 



Characters. Neither maxillary, inter-maxillary, palatine, nor vomerine teeth ; 

 pharyngeal bones large and massive, with numerous pits, like sockets, but with- 

 out teeth ; body elevated, compressed ; neither carina nor crest at the tail ; dorsal 

 and anal fins with three or four of their anterior rays prolonged, and preceded by 

 free spines ; branchial rays seven. 



* From ^odpos, fovea, and Xai/idt, gula. 



