76. POMATOMIDJ]:. 
447 
rather longer than soft dorsal, much longer than the abdomen, its last 
rays forming similar fiulets; anal spines strong; ventral fins depres- 
sible in a groove; pectoral fins very short. Species numerous in the 
tropical seas. The American species belong to the subgenus or genus 
Oiigoplites, characterized by the toothless pterygoids and the peculiar 
scales. The dorsal spines are seven in Scombroides proper {Ghorinemua 
Cuvier), the pterygoids are armed with teeth, and in most of the species 
the scales are normally developed. (?z<),a^3/9«c, macherel; like.) 
a. No pterygoid teeth; scales linear, embedded {Oiigoplites* Gill.) 
707. S. occideaitalis (Linn.) J. & G. — Leather-jacket. 
Bluish above, bright silvery below; fins yellow. Body lanceolate, 
slender. Eye as long as snout, about 4 in head; opercles short. 
Maxillary reaching beyond middle of orbit. Scales very long and 
narrow, embedded in the skin, placed obliquely at angles with each 
other, their appearance unlikeordinary scales. Fins low; pectoral as 
long as ej'e and snout; caudal very deeply forked, the lobes equal. 
Head 5 in length; depth 4. D. V, 1,20; A. II — I, 20. Both coasts ot 
Central America, and West Indies, north to New York and Lower Cali- 
fornia; not rare southward. 
(Gasterosteus oceidentalis Linn. Sy.st. Nat.: Cliorinemus occideiitalis Giiuther, ii, 475; 
Oiigoplites oceidentalis Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1363, 136.) 
Family LXXVI.— POMATOMID^. 
, (The Blue- fishes.) 
Body oblong, compressed, covered with rather small scales, which 
are weakly ctenoid. Caudal peduncle rather stout. Head large, com- 
pressed. Mouth large, oblique. Premaxillaries protractile. Maxillary 
not slipping under the preorbital, iirovided with a large supplemental 
bone; lower jaw jirojecting; bands of villiform teeth on vomer and pal- 
atines, those on the vomer forming a triangular patch; jaws each with a 
single series of very strong, compressed, unequal teeth, widely set ; upper 
)aw with an inner series of small dejiressed teeth ; villiform teeth on the 
base of the tongue. Occijiital keel strong ; free edge of preopercle pro- 
duced and serrated. Gill-membranes free from the isthmus, not united. 
Branchiostegals 7 ; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Pseudobranchite 
large. Gill-rakers slender, rather few. Opercle ending in a flat point. 
Cheeks and opercles scaly. Lateral line present, unarmed. Dorsal 
*Gill. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 166: tyiJe Gasterosteus oceidentalis L. 
{oXtp'o's, few; bit'kirri’iy armed.) 
