PROCEEDINGS OP^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 489 



whose posterior or ascending- processes are short, and on tlic sides l)y 

 the supraniaxilhxry liones, which are expanded towards the ends. 



Teeth acute, variable in position, and sometimes entirely obsolete or 

 lost in old age. 



Branchial apertures very large and ample. Branchiostegal mem- 

 brane deeply' emarginated, sustained generally by 7 rays on ea<'h side 

 (rarely by 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10.) 



Sjiinous dorsal fin short, generally fully developed, but sonu'times 

 represented by free spines, which may be very small or eveu obsolete. 



Soft dorsal fin commencing near the middle of the length, and little 

 less than half as long as the trunk. 



Anal fin opposite to, and generally nearly equal to, the soft dorsal, 

 with two (rarely obsolete) spines in front, detached from the fin. 



Caudal fin forked, and with its lobes slender and pointed. 



Pectoral fins inserted at the normal moderate height above the breast 

 on the scapular arch ; they are generally pointed. 



Ventral fins thoracic and usually normally developed, each having a- 

 spine and five branched rays, which are regularly graduated. (In the 

 Paropsincv they are obsolete.) 



The vertebrfB are in normal (10 + 14) number, with few deviations 

 {e. r/., Naucrates, with 10 + 10) 5 they are much contracted at the middle 

 (like an hour-glass), and most (the costiferous and last caudal excepted) 

 have anterior as well as posterior zygapophyses above and below, and 

 the anterior pair of one vertebra are frequently interposed (or so tend) 

 between the posterior pair of the preceding; the neurapophyses and 

 hoemapophyses spring from near the middle or contracted portion of tlie 

 vertebra?, and are moderately curved backward; the costiferous verte- 

 brte have pits behind or above the parapophyses for the reception of the 

 ribs ; the parapophyses are obsolete on the anterior vertebr;e, and only 

 moderately developed backwards. 



The skull is oblong, inclining to triangular, seen from above; the 

 brain-case is not expanded backwards or outwards, but provided with 

 extensions from the lateral external and internal crests towards the 

 exoccipital condyles ; the internal crests are continued forwards in a 

 nearly or quite parallel direction ; the frontal bones are co-ossified ; the 

 vomer projects forwards and downwards ; the post-frontals are more or 

 less excavated or impressed on their inferior surface. 



SERIOLIN^. 



Siinonymy. 



> Centrouotini, Bonaparte, Giorn. Arcad. dj Scieuze, t. 52 (Saggio Distrib. Metod. Aui- 



uiali Vertebr. a Saugae Freddo, p. 34), 1832. 



< Ceiitronotinc'B, Swainson, Nat. Hist, aud Class. Fishes, etc., v. 2, pp. 170,243,1839. 



> Centrouotini, Bonaparte, Nnovi Annali delle Sci. Nat., t. 2, p. 133, 1838; t. 4, p. 27r>, 



1840. 



< Seriolinae, GUI, Cat. Fishes E. coast N. A., p. 36, 1861 (n. d). 



