1884.] NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 125 



Beesley's Point, Beaufort, Marquesas Keys, Key West, St. 

 Joseph's Island, Martinique, and Brazil. 



Head 3f in length ; depth 1| ; D. VI-1, 19 ; A. Il-I, 18 ; length 

 (No. 486, I. XJ. Havana) 18 inches. 



Body broadl}-^ ovate, moderately compressed ; profile very 

 evenly convex from procumbent spine to horizontal from upper 

 edge of eye, where it descends almost vertical. The vertical 

 portion is about H times the eye ; length of snout nearly equals 

 the eye ; mouth nearly horizontal ; maxillary reaching to the 

 vertical from middle of eye, its length 21 in head ; jaws without 

 teeth in adult ; dorsal spines short and thick, not connected by 

 membrane in adult; ventrals short, their tips scarcely reaching 

 half way to anterior anal spine ; 3 in head ; caudal widely 

 forked ; lobes about 2t in length of body ; dorsal and anal fins 

 falcate ; anterior rays reaching almost to posterior end of fins ; in 

 adults, dorsal lobe 2f , anal lobe 4^, in length of body. Color 

 bluish above, silvei-y below ; lobes of dorsal black in young ; in 

 adults the fins are all bluish with lighter tips. 



The young differ from the adult as above described in the 

 following respects : The profile is scarcely convex ; snout shorter 

 and less vertical ; spines much longer and connected by membranes ; 

 lobes of vertical fins shorter ; dorsal lobe with black ; fins all much 

 paler ; jaws with bands of villiform teeth; eye larger; color much 

 paler. 



We have had no opportunity of comparing the American 

 Trachynotus rhomboides with the East Indian Trachynotus 

 ovatus with which it has been identified by Dr. Giinther. We 

 have been led to consider them as distinct by the following ob- 

 servation of Dr. Liitken: " I will only remark that the Trachy- 

 notus rhomboides of the Antilles has already its rhomboidal 

 physiognomy and the falcations of its fins strongly prolonged 

 at an age at which, in the Trachynotus ovatus of the seas of the 

 Indies, these prolongations of the fins are quite short. I am of 

 the opinion (with Mr. Gill) that these two species ought, at least 

 provisionally, to be considered as distinct." 



As the antecedent probabilities are against the identity of these 

 species in such widely separated faunre, there is less danger of 

 confusion in regarding the two as different. 



Trachynotus rhodopus. Permit. Great Pompann. 



Trachynotus goreensis Giinther. Cat. Fish, Brit. Mus., 1860, 483 

 (specimens from Caribbean Sea ; in part, not of Cuvier & Valenci- 



