41 G CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
Family LXX.— I:CHENEIDID^. 
{The Remoras.) 
Bodj' fusiform, eloui^ate, covered with minute, cycloid scales. Mouth 
wide, Avitli villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, palatines, and usually on 
ton/^uo. rremaxillaries not protractile. Lower jaw projecting beyond 
ui)per. Spinous dorsal modified into a sucking-disk, which is placed on 
the top of the head and neck, and is composed of a double series of 
transverse, movable, cartilaginous plates, serrated on their posterior or 
free edges. By means of this disk these fishes attach themselves to 
other fishes or to floating objects, and are carried for great distances in 
the sea. Opercles unarmed. Pectoral fins placed high; ventral fins 
l)resent, thoracic, and close together — I, 5; dorsal and anal fins long, 
without spines, opposite each other; caudal fin einarginate or rounded. 
Branchiostegals 7. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; gill-rakers short; 
gill-membranes not united, Iree from the isthmus. Pseudobranchim ob- 
solete. Several pyloric appendages. Xo air-bladder. Xo finlets. Xo 
caudal keel. Vertebrm more than 10 4- 14. Genera 2; species about 
10, found in all seas, all having a very wide range. 
{Scombrida’ part : geuus Eclieneis Giiiither, ii, 37G-385.) 
a. Rays of ])ectorals normal Echexeis, 200. 
aa. Rays of pectoral liiis stiff, broad, osseous Ruombociiihus, 207. 
206 .— ECBSEIVEIS Linuajus. 
(Artedi; Linn. Syst. Nat.: tjY>e Echends 'nauc7-afes E.) 
Pectoral rays soft and flexible. Characters otherwise included above, 
an ancient name, from k’/w, to hold back; vaoy, a ship.) 
a. Body very slender ; vertebrae 14 16 . (Echeneis.) 
657 . E. siaiBcrntes L. — Pegador. 
Brownish; belly dark like the back, as usual in this family; sides 
with a broad stripe of darker edged with whitish, extending through 
eye to snout; caudal black, its outer angles whitish; iiectorals and ven- 
trals black, sometimes bordered with pale; dorsal and anal broadly 
edged with white anteriorly. Body elongate, subterete, slender. Disk 
long. Dorsal and anal fins longer than the disk; inner rays of ventral 
fins lEirrowly adnate to the abdomen; caudal becoming emargiuate with 
age. Yertebrte 14 + lG. Vertical fins low; pectorals f length of head, 
rather long and acute. Lower jaw i)rojectiug, with the tip flexible. 
