410 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



Body elongate, covered with thin, email, silvery scales. Dorsal fin 

 slightly behind ventrals, its last rays short, the fin dejjressible into a 

 sheath of scales ; anal fin smaller, similarly depressible ; pectorals and 

 ventrals moderate, each with a long accessory scale. Opercular bones 

 thin, with expanded, membranaceous borders; a scaly occipital collar. 

 Lateral line straight, its tubes simple. Pseudobranchia? present, large. 

 Vertebra' 43 -f 29= 72. Large fishes of the open seas, remarkable for the 

 development of scaly sheaths. The young are ribbon-shaped and 

 elongate, passing through a series of changes like those seen in Alhula. 

 (e/.oi/,', name of some sea fish; a swordfish or sturgeon; from tXai'vo), to 

 drive or move. ) 



671. ELOPS SAIIRUS, Linii.inis. 

 (TF.N-rouNDF.R ; .Toiin-Marigc.le ; Bony-fish; Big-eveh Hf.rrino ; Matajuelo Real; Chiko; 



Lisa Fkancesa.) 



Head 4J ; depth .5 to 6; eye large, 4 to 5. D. 20; A. 13; V. 15 ; B. 30; 

 scales 12-120-13. Gular plate 3 to 4 times as long as broad. Length 3 

 feet. Tropical seas ; abundant and very widely distributed. Common in 

 America, north to Carolina and the Gulf of California; straying on the 

 Atlantic Coast to Long Island, (satirus, aaipoi-, lizard.) 



Flops murnit, Linn.kus, Syst. Nat., Ed. xii, 518, 1766, Carolina ; Gunther, Cat., vii, 470, 1868; 



Jordan & Gilbert, Syuopsis, 261, 1883, and of most authors. 

 Argentina Carolina, LiNN,T:n.s, Syst. Nat., Ed. xil, 519, 1766, Carolina. 

 Argentina maclmata, ForskAl, Descr. Anim., 68, 1775, Djidda, Arabia. 

 Mugilomm-ns anna-caroUna, LACJiPEDK, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 398, 1803, South Carolina. 

 Elopsinermis, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. T., i, 1S15, 445, New York. 

 Elops capensif. Smith, Zoiil. S. Africa, 1845, pi. 7, Cape of Good Hope. 

 Elo})s 2^nrpurascens, Bichardson, Iclith. China, 311, 184C, China. 



Family LVIL ALBULID^. 



(The Lady-fishes.) 



Body rather elongate, little compressed, covered with rather small, 

 brilliantly silvery scales ; head naked. Snout conic, subquadrangular, 

 shaped like the snout of a pig, and overlapping the small, inferior, hori- 

 zontal mouth. Maxillary rather strong, short, with a distinct supple- 

 mental bone, slipping under the membranous edge of the very broad 

 preorbital ; premaxillaries short, not protractile. Lateral margin of 

 upper jaw formed by the maxillaries ; both jaws, vomer, and palatines 

 with bands of viliiform teeth ; broad patches of coarse, blunt, paved 

 teeth on the tongue behind and on the sphenoid and pterygoid bones. 

 Eye large, median in head, with a bony ridge above it, and almost covered 

 with an annular adipose eyelid. Opercle moderate, firm ; preopercle witli 

 a broad, flat, membranaceous edge, which extends backward over the 

 base of the ojjercle. Pseudobranchia^ present. Gill rakers short, tubercle- 

 like. Gill membranes entirely separate, free from the isthmus; branchi- 

 ostegals about 14; a fold of skin across gill membranes anteriorly, its 

 posterior free edge crenate; no gular plate. Lateral line present. Belly 

 not cariuate, flattish, covered with ordinary scales. Dorsal fin moderate, 

 in front of ventrals, its membranes scaly ; no adipose fin ; anal very small ; 

 caudal widely forked Pyloric coeca numerous. Parietal bones meeting 



