82 BERYCID^. 
457 
■yiS. Z. ocellafms (Storer) Gill. 
Color silvery, nearly plain; a black lateral ocellated spot in life, dis- 
appearing in spirits. Bodj' short, deep, compressed. Skin wholly 
naked, except for the bony bucklers, which are armed each with a central 
spine hooked backwards and marked with radiating ridges; 7 bucklers 
along the base of the dorsal, the 5th and Cth largest; 2 on the median 
line in front of the ventrals, the second largest; one median i)late, and 
0 pairs between ventrals and anal, and 4 along the base of the anal. Top 
of the head with ronghish ridges, but without spines ; a spine at the 
base of each dentary bone; the broad maxillaries each with a supi^le- 
mental bone; teeth nearly obsolete. Eye large, much nearer the gill 
opening than the tip of the snout. Gill-rakers short. Caudal peduncle 
very slender, the caudal fin short and rounded ; pectorals very short ; 
ventrals large, the rays I, 6, the first soft ray closely appressed to the 
spine; anal spines short and stout, the soft rays, like those of the dorsal, 
low; dorsal spines filamentous. D. IX, 26; A. 111,24. Pelagic; one 
specimen taken at Provincetown, Mass. (Description from the original 
type.) 
{Zeus occUatus Storer, Proc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist, vi, 888; Gill, 1. c.) 
Family LXXXII.— BERYCID^. 
{The Squirrel- fishes.) 
Body oblong or ovate, compressed, covered with very strongly ctenoid 
or spinous scales. Head with large muciferous cavities, covered by thin 
skin. Eye lateral, usualB" large. Mouth more or less oblique. Pre- 
maxillaries protractile ; maxillary rather large, usually with a supple- 
mental bone. Bands of villiform teeth on jaws, and usually on vomer 
and palatines. Opercular bones usually spinous ; frequently every mem- 
brane bone of the head strongly serrated. Branchiostegals mostly 8. 
Gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus. Gills 4, a slit behind 
the fourth. Pseudobranchiie present. Gill-rakers moderate. Cheeks 
and opeicles scaly. Xo barbels. Dorsal fin long or short, usually with 
strong spines; anal with 2-4 spines; ventral fins thoracic, usuallj" I, 7, 
the number of rays greater than I, 5 ; caudal fin usually forked. Pyloric 
coeea numerous. Genera 5-C ; species about 50. Eough-scaled and 
brightly colored fishes of the warm seas; two species straying to our 
