1366 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



dorsal fins slender; pectoral short, 1^^ in head; ventrals moderate, with 

 axillary scales: vertical fins without scales except the sheath at base; 

 caudal deeply forked, nearly as long as head, the angles pointed. Color 

 greenish, bluish-white below; snout yellowish; a broad band of green 

 tinged with yellow from eye to tail ; three similar bauds on back, the 

 median one most distiuct and most regular; dorsals pale yellow; caudal 

 dusky violet, the borders jiale; pectoral rosy; ventrals and anal white. 

 C(L'ca 5; air bladder very small. Length 8 inches. Havana (Poey.) 

 Very rare, but occasionally visiting the coast of Cuba in great schools in 

 December. (iHttatus, striped.) 

 Incnnia vUtata,'POEY, Meiuorias, ll, 193, 1860, Havana. 

 Eiiimelichthys vittatus, PoEY, Synopsis, 320, 1868. 

 Erythrichthys vittatus, Poey, Enumeratio, 49, 1875 ; Jordan & Fesler, I. c, 528, 1893. 



Family CLIII. GERRID.E. 



(The Mojakras.) 



Body oblong or elevated, comiiressed, covered with large, smooth scales; 

 lateral line continuous, concurrent with the back; mouth moderate, 

 extremely i)rotractile, descending when protruded, the spines of the pre- 

 maxillary extending to above eye, closing a deep groove in the top of head ; 

 maxillary without supplemental bone, not slipping under the very narrow 

 preorbital, its surface silvery, like the rest of the head; base of mandible 

 scaly, a slit between it and the preorbital to jiermit its free motion ; both 

 jaws with slender, villiform teeth; no incisors, canines, nor molars; no 

 teeth on vomer or palatines; preopercle entire or serrate; sides of head 

 scaly ; nostrils double, round; pseudobranchia' concealed; gill rakers short, 

 broad; gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus; dorsal fin single, 

 continuous or deeply notched, the spinous and soft portions about t'(|iuilly 

 developed, with a scaly sheath along the base; dorsal spines usually 9 or 

 10; anal usually with 3 spines, the soft portion of the fin similar to the 

 soft dorsal but shorter; ventral fins thoracic, I, 5, rather close together, 

 slightly behind pectorals: branchiostegals6; lower pharyngeal bones close 

 together, often appearing to be united, the teeth blunt; air bladder pres- 

 ent; pyloric ca»ca rudimentary ; vertebne 10-|-14=24. Oviparous. Genera 

 6 or S; species about 40. Carnivorous fishes of moderate or small size 

 inhabiting the tropical seas. They difi"er considerably in form and in 

 development of spines, but the intergradations are very perfect, so that 

 but for the osteological peculiarities of certain species all might be placed 

 in one genus.* The larger species are used as food and are of excellent 

 fiavor. {Gerr'uUv, Giinther, Cat. Fishes, iv, 252-264, 1862.) 



a. Dorsal fin continuous, deeply notched. 



h. Second interhiPuial spine singvilaily developed, as a liollow cylinder, conipara. 

 lively short and much expanded, the pcsterior end of the air bladder enter, 

 ingits cavity; preopercle and preorbital entire; anal spines 3, the second 

 not nnicb enlarged. ErciNOSTOMUS, 559. 



*ror descriptions and complete synonymy of the species of this family see paper 

 Evertuann & Meek in Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pliila. 1886, 256-272. 



