180 ELOPS SAURUS. 



Synonymes, Elops saurus, Lin., Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 518. 



Argentina Carolina, Lin., Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 518. 



Elops saurus, Gmel., Ed. Syst. Nat., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1394. 



Argentina Carolina, Gmel., Ed. Syst. Nat., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1395. 



Mugilomore Anne-Caroline, Lacip., Nat. Hist. Poiss., torn. v. p. 398. 



Argentina Carolina, Lacip., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. v. p. 369. 



Elops saurus, Shau^, Gen. Zool., vol. v. p. 125. 



Elops inermis, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y., vol. i. p. 445. 



Elops saurus, Cuv. el Vol., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. xix. p. 365. 



Elops saurus, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iv. p. 267, pi. 41, fig. 131. 



Elops saurus, Storer, Synops., p. 211. 



Description. The body is very much elongated, sub-cylindrical, round at the 

 back, slightly flattened at the belly, and as slightly compressed at the sides. The 

 head is long and thick, with the snout full and rounded ; the supra-orbital ridges 

 are elevated, and leave a deep, broad, oblong depression on the vertex, which is 

 broadest between the eyes, and very narrow behind ; the orbit of the eye is marked 

 above with parallel ridges and depressions, directed from within outwards. 



The eye is very large, and placed near the facial outline, with its inferior margin 

 near the median plane of the head, and about its diameter from the snout, and two 

 diameters and a quarter from the posterior border of the opercle ; the jiupil is 

 deepest blue; the iris is silvery, with a nictitating membrane both before and 

 behind, which leaves a vertical, elliptical opening ; this membrane extends for 

 a considerable distance over the cheeks. The nostrils are closely approximated, 

 and rather nearer to the eye than to the snout ; the posterior is semilunar in 

 shape, and much the larger ; the anterior is round, and both are at the anterior 

 extremity of the svipra-orbital ridge. 



The mouth is very large, as the posterior extremity of the upper jaw extends 

 behind the orbit; the lower jaw seems longer than the upper when the mouth is 

 open, but is in fact received within it when the mouth is closed; the upper 

 jaw has no lip, but the lower has a loose fold of skin on its posterior half; both 

 are armed with numerous series of minute, rasp-like teeth ; the band in the 



