Jordaji and Evcrmann. — Fishes of North America. 1477 



1863. MENTICIRBHUS LITTORALIS (Holbiook). 



(Surf Whiting; Silver Whiting.) 



Head 34 ; depth 4? ; eye 6^ in head; snout 3*. D. X-I, 23 to 25 ; A. I, 7 ; 

 scales 6-53, 12 pores. Upper lobe of caudal not longer than lower; scales 

 rather largo, 15 to 18 in an oblique series from vent upward and forward 

 to lateral line; axillary scale not \ length of pectoral ; snout distinctly 

 projecting beyond mouth; gill rakers larger than in other species, the 

 longest about \ length of pupil, the unmber x -\-l\ lower pharyngeal bones 

 broad, most of the teeth developed as coarse molars, only those along the 

 posterior margin conical; maxillary reaching past front of orbit, %\ in 

 head; outer teeth of upper jaw scarcely enlarged; longest dorsal spines 

 reaching past front of soft dorsal, the free mai-gin of the fin concave; cau- 

 dal rather deeply Innate, the lower lobe rounded, the upper pointed; A'eu- 

 trals If in pectorals, which are 1^ in head. Color silvery gray above, with 

 bluish and bronze reliections, immaculate ; a dark-bronze shade along sides 

 on level of pectorals, extending to tail and along cheeks ; belly below this 

 abruptly white; dorsals light brown, spinous dorsal black at tip, the base 

 narrowly white; caudal pale, its tip usually black ; inner lining of pectoral 

 and Aentrals blackish; gill cavity pale. South Atlantic and Gulf coasts 

 of the United States, North Carolina to Texas; generally common in the 

 surf along the sandy shores of the Southern States. It resembles Menti- 

 cir7-hus americauHS somewhat in external characters so that it has often 

 been confounded with it 1>y careless observers. Its technical distinctions 

 are, however, numerous, and in the form of its pharyngeal teeth it differs 

 in a marked degree from the true Ifenticirrhus. {Uttoralis, pertaining to 

 the shores.) 

 Umbrina liUoralis, Holbrook, Iclitliyol. S. Carolina, 1st ed., 142, pi. 20, tig. 1, 185fi, South 



Carolina; GiJNTHER, Cat., li, 276, 1860. 

 Menticirrhus littoralis, Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 933, 1883; Jordan & Eigenmann, 



I.e., 432,1889. 



592. PARALONCHURUS, Bocourt. 



(CORVALOS.) 



Paralonchttnis, Bocourt, Nouv. Archiv jMus. Pari.s, iv, 21, 1SC9 {prUrsi). 



Pobjcirrhus, Bocourt, Kouv. Archiv Mus. Paris, iv, 22, 1869 (dunieriU) -, not Polycirrlm.^, 



Geube, 1850, a genus of worm.s. 

 PoiyciejHMS, Berg, Aim. Mus. If ac. Buenos A ires 1895, 54 {dumerili) ; substitute for Poly- 



cirrhus, preoccupied. 

 Zonoscion, Jordan & Evermann, Check-List, 401, 1896 (rathhuni). 

 Zaclonus, Gilbert, in Jordan >fc Evermann, Check List, 401, 1896 {goodci). 



Body more or less elongate, the head rather slender ; preopercle without 

 l)ony serratures; a row of slender barbels along the inner edge of the 

 dentary bones, and a small tuft at the chin; no pseudobranchia- : gill 

 rakers obsolete, or nearly so ; teeth in bands, the outer above enlarged or 

 not; soft dorsal usually rather long; spinous dorsal and anal moderate; 

 scales moderate or rather small; caudal long. Species rather numerous; 

 South American; closely agreeing in technical characters but divisible 

 into 4 strongly marked groujDS which may be genera. ( itapd, near ; to Lon- 

 chiiirus, with which genus they agree in the absence of jiseudobranchia}). 



