1474 Bulletin ^7, United States National Mnsetim. 



acute; outer teeth of upper jaw decidedly enlarged. Dorsal spines not 

 much elevated, the longest usually not reaching front of soft dorsal, 1| 

 to If in head. Lower lobe of caudal longest. Snout rather shorter and 

 less pointed than in M. americanus; mouth smaller, the maxillary 3 in 

 head. Coloration usually plain, sometimes very dark; back and sides 

 usually with oblique dusky bars. West Indies to Patagonia; very com- 

 mon on the coast of Brazil, where it replaces the closely related M. ameri- 

 canus, from which it is not well separated. Our sjiecimeus are from 

 Jamaica. (Named for Martinique, the type locality.) 



Umbrina martinicensis, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 186, 1830, Mar- 

 tinique ; GiiNTHEK, Cat., n, 277, 1860 ; Jordan, Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, 5;i9. 



TJmhrina gracilis, CuviER & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 189, 1830, Brazil; Gi'iN- 

 THER, Cat., II, 277, 1860 ; Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, 539. 



Umbri7ia arenata, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 190, 1830, Brazil ; 

 GuNTHER, Cat., II, 276, 1860. 



Umbrina januaria, Steindachnbe, Ichtli. Beitr., V, 122, 1876, Rio Janeiro. 



Menticirrhus martinicensis* Jordan & Eigenmann, I. c, 429, 1889; Berg., Ann. Mus. 

 Buen. Aires 1895, 56. 



1859. MENTICIRRHUS AMERICANUS (Linnseus). 



(Carolina Whiting; Sand Whiting.) 



Head 3^; depth 4 to 5; eye B| in head; snout 3^. D. X-I, 24 or 25; A. 

 I, 7; scales 6-55, 12 pores. Maxillary reaching nearly to middle of eye, 2* 

 to 3 in head; eye small; teeth villiform, in broad bands, the outer series 

 of the upper jaw very much enlarged, larger than in the other species; 

 ventrals short, li in pectorals; pectorals li in head; caudal /-shaped, the 

 broad rounded lower lobe longer than the acute upper; scales all ctenoid, 

 those of the breast larger and regularly placed. Color, grayish silvery, 

 with obscure darker clouds along the back and sides, these marks form- 

 ing dusky bars, running obliquely forward and downward to considerably 

 below the lateral line, these often obsolete; the bar at the nape saddle- 

 like; lining of gill cavity dusky; pectoral yellowish, dusky at tip; an 

 obscure dusky streak along lower part of sides running into lower lobe 

 of caudal. South Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, Chesa- 

 peake Bay to Texas; very common on the sandy coasts of our Southern 

 States, where it is a food-fish of some importance. 



* We have examined the types of Umbrina inartinicensis and U. gracilis in the museum 

 at Paris; also numerous specimens in the museum at Cambridge, apparently identical 

 with these, from Rio Janeiro, Kio Grande do Sul, Victoria, Bahia, and Montevideo. The 

 species seems to be as common in South America as its analogue, 2i. americanus, is in 

 North America. The two are exceedingly alike, and martinicensis is probably a geo- 

 graphical variety of the other, distinguished perhaps by a slightly smaller number of 

 rays in the dorsal tin. Were it not that the Sciienoid fauna of South America is chiefly 

 ditferent from that of North America, we should scarcely hesitate to place martinicensis 

 ill the synonymy ot americanus. Uinbrina januaria is apparently based upon the speci- 

 mens from Rio Janeiro examined by us. Umbrina gracilis was based on the dried skin 

 of a young example, distorted and varnished. Umbrina arenata, as described by Cuvier 

 & Valenciennes, does not differ at all from M. martinicenids. As described by Dr. Giin- 

 ther, the scales are 72 to 78 in arenata. It is evident, however, that Giinther has counted 

 not the pores, but the number of vertical series of scales, and these range from 70 to 80 in 

 nearly all of our species, the number exceeding the number of pores by about 20, and 

 similarly exceeding the number of oblique series. We see no reason, therefore, for not 

 placing arenata in the synonomy of martinicentis. (Jordan &, Eigenmann.) 



