CARANX DEFENSOR. - 85 



CARANX BEFENSOn. — DeKai/. 



Plate XII. Fig. 1. 



Specific Characters. Head full, prominent ; body above, pale brown, with 

 a strong yellow tint ; below, white, with pinkish reflections ; opercle with a black 

 blotch ; pectoral fin with a dusky spot near its anterior fourth. D. 8-1-23. 

 P. 18. V. 1-5. A. 2-1-17. C. 17. 



Synonymes. Caranx defensor, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iv. p. 120, pi. 24, fig. 72. 

 Caranx defensor, Storer, Synops., p. 103. 

 Horse Crevalle, or Cavalli,' Vtilgo. 



Description. This fish, without the tail, is of a sub-oval form, arched and 

 thicker along the back, nearly straight and thinner at the belly, so that a trans- 

 verse section appears elliptical, and broadest just above the median plane. The 

 head is large and thick, though carinated above ; and the profile descends in a 

 regular curve to the nostrils, where it is slightly incurved ; the snout is narrow, 

 though rounded. The eye is very large, its lower margin being near the median 

 plane of the head ; it is placed about one diameter of the orbit from the snout, and 

 two diameters from the posterior border of the opercle ; the pupil is dark, and the 

 iris is golden, with its posterior half covered by a nictitating membrane, which is 

 crescentic in front, tolerably thick, and perfectly transparent. The nostrils are 

 closely approximated, very near the eye, above its median plane, and on a line with- 

 in the orbit ; both are sub-oval, nearly of the same size, though the posterior is 

 rather higher up. 



The mouth is large, the upper jaw extending to the posterior border of the or- 

 bit ; the lips are tolerably thick and fieshy. The upper jaw is armed with a series 

 of moderately large, conical, and pointed teeth ; those in front are largest ; behind 

 these are three or four rows of minute, card-like teeth; the lower jaw has but a 

 single row of teeth, and these are longer than those of the upper, especially two 



