390 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV'. 
art. Skin smootli, witkont dorinal ossifications. 
OSS. r. soB-a’ali# Cuvier. 
C’li iiyisli ; soiiietiines witli a series of blue spots along the back or sides; 
head siivery below. Form much as in the preceding, but head and body 
broader and more depressed; edges of snout more distinctly serrated, 
a foramen in the axil of pectoral. Snout 3f in length. Head 2f. D. 
14; A. 13. Warm seas; rare northward ; perhaps the same as the pre- 
ceding. 
(Cuvier, Regne Anini. 1817; Giintlier, iii, 5:i3.) 
Family LXIL— AULOSTOMATID.E. 
i^The Flute-mouths.) 
r>ody compressed, elongate, covered with small ctenoid scales. Lat- 
eral line continuous. Head long; mouth small, at the end of a long, 
compressed tube. Lower jaw prominent, with a barbel at the symphy- 
sis. Premaxillary feeble, not protractile; maxillary broad, triangular, 
with a supplemental bone. Teeth minute, in bands, on lower jaw and 
vomer. Lranchiostegals 4. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Ikseudo- 
branchim well developed. Gill-rakers obsolete. Gill-membranes sepa- 
rate, free from the isthmus. Air-bladder large. Spinous dorsal pres- 
ent, of 8-12 very slender free spines. Soft dorsal and anal rather long, 
similar, posterior. Caudal small, rhombic, the middle rays longest, but 
not produced into a filament. Ventrals abdominal, of six rays, all articu- 
lated. l^ectorals broad, rounded, the space in front of them scaly. Two 
pyloric cceca. A single genus, with two species, found in tropical seas. 
{Fistularidw \}t. genus Aulor.tonia Gliiither, iii, 535-538.) 
191.— Airi.OST©I?IA Laedpede. 
(Laedpede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. v, 3.57, 1803: type Fistularia chinensis L.) 
Characters of the genus included above, (ay/ur, tube; ardy-a, mouth.) 
021. A. BnacBaSatBim Val. 
Olivaceous, with one or two series of brown or blue dots along each 
side of the back; another irregular series from the preoperculum along 
each side of the belly to the anal fin; three or four silvery lines on each 
side of abdomen, replaced on the head by irregular oblique streaks ; 
anterior ])art of dorsal and anal with a horizontal black streak; caudal 
fin usually with two round black spots; ventral fins plain. I). X-23; 
A. 25; V. (>. {Giintker.) Caribbean Sea, north to Southern Florida; 
lirobably identical with .4, chinense. 
(V-ilenc. iiiCuv. Regue Auiiual, 1817; Aiilosfoma coloratiim Miiller & Trosek. Sekomb. 
Hist. Barbad. 1848, 0/3: Aiilostoma coloration Giiutker, iii, 530.) 
