454 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
Family LXXIX. — CORYPH^NID^. 
[The Dolphins.) 
Body elou^ate, conipressed, covered with small cycloid scales. Cleft 
of the mouth wide, oblique, the lower jaw projecting. Cardiform teeth 
in the jaws and on the vomer and palatine bones; a patch of villiform 
teeth on the tongue; no teeth on the oesophagus. Opercular bones 
entire. Skull with a crest, which is much more elevated in the adult 
than in the young. A single, many- rayed dorsal fin, not greatly elevated, 
extending from the nape nearly to the caudal fin; anal similar, but 
shorter; both without distinct spines; pectoral tins very short and 
small ; ventrals well developed, thoracic, I, 5, partly received into a 
groove in the abdomen ; caudal fin widely forked. Lateral line present. 
Gill -membranes free from the isthmus. Branchiostegals 7; no pseudo- 
branchim. No air-bladder. Pyloric appendages very numerous. Verte- 
bra more than 10-1-14. A single genus, with six or eight species. Very 
large fishes, inhabiting the high seas in warm regions, noted for their 
brilliant and changeable colors. To this family belongs the Dolphin 
or Dorade of the ancients, Corypluena Mppurus L. 
{Scombrido} : genus Coryphcena Giinther, ii, 404-408.) 
235. COKYPMiEl^A LimicTeus. 
Dolphins. 
(Lampugus C. & V. ; young or crestless forms.) 
(Liunteus, Syst. Nat.: type Coryphoena hippurus L.) 
Characters of the genus included above. The species are not well 
known, having been unduly multiplied by authors, [xopufatva, the name 
applied by Aristotle to Corypluena hippurus^ from xupoq, helmet; 
to show.) 
t 
'S'15. C. punctulaia (Cuv. and Val.) Gtlir . — Spotted Dolphin. 
Sea-green, silvery below, with scattered black spots on the sides and 
back ; a series of distant rounded spots along the base of the dorsal 
fin ; head with brown stripes. Body elongate, compressed, tapering 
gently backwards; profile very convex, snout blunt. Mouth large, 
oblique; maxillary reaching middle of orbit. Pectorals short, falcate; 
ventrals long and rather inirrow. Eye large, nearly as long as snout. 
Dead 4^; depth about 5. “ D. 51; A. 25.” Warmer parts of the 
Atlantic, occasional on our coast. 
{Lampugus punctulatus Cuv. and Val. ix, 327: GUntber, ii, 408: ICoryphcena equiseti 
L. Syst. Nat.) 
