1718 Bulletin 4-7, United States National Museum. 



bb. Anal rays 38; body covered with small, round dark-brown spots. 



PUNCTATA, 2136. 

 aa. Dorsal rays about I, 46; anal rays about 50. 

 OSBECKIA:* 



c. Caudal tin elongate, with rounded angles. Coloration not nnil'orm, the head and body 

 with irregular blue spots and lines, besides small round black spots ; upper pro- 

 file of snout concave. scripta, 2137. 

 Alutera : 



cc. Caudal fin short, subtruncate, with acute angles. Coloration uniform ; upper pro- 

 file of snout convex. monoceeos, 2138. 



Subgenus CERATACANTHUS, Gill. 



2135. ALUTERA S('H(EPF1I (Walbaum). 



(File Fish; Orange File Fish; Lijaj Fool Fish.) 



Head 3| in length ; depth 2 in adult to 2J in young. D. I, 36 ; A. 38. 

 Body growing deeper with age, the outlines more convex in the adult. 

 Eye small, about 4 iu snout. Gill slit nearly twice as long as eye, its 

 upper posterior edge nearly under middle of eye. Anterior profile very 

 slightly convex, growing steeper with age; a slight depression at hase 

 of upper jaw. Pectoral fins scarcely i longer than eye; dorsal spint' 

 slender and weak, longer in the young, 2 to 3 times length of eye ; dorsal 

 and anal fins low; caudal very long in young, becoming shorter in adult, 

 its angles rounded. Scales minute, shagreen-like, uniform over body. 

 Coloration nearly uniform dirty olive gray, varying to orange yellow, often, 

 especially when young, mottled above with darker bluish or dull orauge ; 

 caudal sometimes dusky, edged with white, usually dull yellowish in the 

 adult. Length 24 inches. Cape Cod to Florida and Texas; rather fre- 

 (luent on sandy shores, especially iu the Caroliuas. A large, lank fish, of 

 unattractive form and useless as food. (Named for Dr. Johaun David 

 Schopf, an excellent botanist and an acute observer, sent as a surgeon with 

 the Hessian troops on Long Island in the war of the American Eevolution. ) 



BaUstes schmpfii, Walbaum, Artedi Piscium, 461, 1792, Long Island; after .Schcepf, Ber- 

 lin Ges. Ifiiturf., vni, 186, 1788. 



BaUstes aurantiacus, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. T., l, 181.5, 468, New York ; 

 adult. 



Alutera ctispicauda, De KAY, New York Fauna: Fishes, 338, 1842, New York ; young. 



Aluterus holbrooki, Hollaed, Ann. Sci. Nat., iv, 7,1855, North America. 



Alutems cultrifrons. Hollaed, Ann. Sci. Nat., Ser. 4, IV, 8, pi. 1, flg. 2, 1855, " New York 

 and Bahia." 



CeratacaiUhiis aurantiacus. Gill, Cat. Fishes East Coast N. A., 57, 1861. 



2136. ALUTERA PUXf TATA, Agassiz. 

 (Long Mixgo.) 



Head to upper end of gill opening 3|^ in length; depth 2^. D. I, 36; A. 

 35; orbit ii in head to upper cud of gill opening; length of gill opening 

 3; caadal 2| in body; base of dorsal 3. Profile concave; lower jaw much 



* Named for Per Osbeck, a student of Linna'us and an excellent ichthyologist, who col- 

 lected in China, his Iter Chinensis first published in 1757. 



