9G4: Bulletin 4J, United States National Museum. 



1362. PALINURICHTHTS PERCIFORMIS (MitchiU). 



(Rudder-fish; Log Fish; Snip-nose Mullet.) 



Head 3^; depth 2\. D. VIII, 20 ; A. Ill, 16; lateral line 75; eye rather 

 large, nearly equal to snout, 4i in head. Body ovate. Maxillary reach- 

 ing to opposite front of pupil ; eye with adipose eyelid. Top of head 

 scaleless, covered with small mucous pores. Pectorals nearly as long as 

 head. Blackish green, everywhere dark, the belly scarcely paler and not 

 silvery. Length 1 foot. Atlantic Coast of North America, from Cape Hat- 

 teras to Maine; rather common northward, especially about Cape Cod ; 

 one specimen once taken in a live box off Cornwall, having drifted across 

 from America. (Perco, perch; fortna, shape.) 



Coryphena perciformis, Mitchill, Amer. Monthly Mag., il, 214, 1818, New York Harbor. 

 Pimeleptcnts comubie)isis, Coknish, Zoologist, ix, 1874, 4255, Penzance, in Cornwall. (Coll. T. 



Cornish.) 

 Palimirus perciformis, De Kay, New York Fauna: Fishes, 118, y]. 24, fig. 25, 1842. 

 PalinuricTithys perciformis, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 20, 1860. 

 Pammelas perciformis, Gunthf.e, Cat., il, 485, 1860. 

 Lirm perciformis, Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 452, 1883; Fordice, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 316, 



1884. 



Family CXXXV. STEOMATEID.E.* 



(The Fiatolas.) 



Body compressed and more or less elevated, covered with small or 

 minute cycloid scales. Profile anteriorly blunt and rounded. Mouth 

 small. Premaxillaries not protractile. Dentition feeble ; no teeth on 

 vomer or palatines; pharyngeals little developed; (esophagus armed with 

 numerous horny, barbed, or hooked teeth. Opercular bones smooth, not 

 serrate. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Gill membranes either separ- 

 ate and free from (Stromateinw) or broadly joined to ihe isthmus (Stroma- 

 teoidin(v), restricting the gill openings to the sides as in Cluvtodipterus. Gill 

 rakers rather long. Pseudobranchia' present. Cheeks scaly. Preopercle 

 entire or serrate. Lateral line well developed. Dorsal fin single, long, with 

 the spines few or weak, often obsolete ; anal iin long, similar to soft dorsal, 

 usually with 3 small spines, which are often depressible in a fold of skin ; 

 veutrals thoracic, I, 5, in the young, but reduced or altogether wanting 

 in the adult ; caudal fin well forked. Usually no air bladder. Pyloric 

 cceca commonly numerous. Vertebrae 30 to 36 (ii/ioHi&«s 30 or 31 ; Strom- 

 ateus 36). Genera 3, species about 30. Fishes usually of small size, 

 found in most warm seas, many of them valued as food. We here remove 

 ^he CcntrolopMdcv, a group usually associated with the Stromateidw, but 

 differing in appearance and in the smaller number of vertebnt, although 

 agreeing in the possession of teeth in the a?sophagus. {Scombrida\ part, 

 Giinther, Cat., ii, 397, 1860, genus Stromatcus.) 



aPelvlc t bone projecting from the skin as an evident spine ; no trace of ventrals. 



Rhombus, 441. 



*For a review of the American species of Stroynaleidie see jiaper by Fordice iu Proc. Ac. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila., 1884, 311-317. 



fThe pelvic bone is not extcnially visible iu SlrouiateHs. 



