9-2. GERRID^ — GERRES. 
583 
a slit between it and tbe preorbital to permit its free motion ; both jaws 
with slender, villiform teeth ; no incisors, canines, nor inolars ; no teeth 
on vomer or palatines; preopercle entire or serrate; sides of head 
scaly; nostrils doable, round; psendobranchim concealed; gill-iakers 
short, broad; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmns; dorsal 
fin single, continuous or deeply notched, the spinous and soft portions 
about etiually developed, with a scaly sheath along the base, as in Em- 
biotocidcc; dorsal spines usually 9 or 10 ; anal usually with 3 spines ; the 
soft portion of the fin similar to the soft dorsal, but shorter; ventral 
fins thoracic, I, 5 ; branchiostegals C ; lower pharyngeal bones firmly 
united, with a suture; air-bladder present; pyloric coeca rudimentaiy; 
vertebrae 10-14. Oviparous. Species about 30, inhabiting the tropical 
seas. They differ considerably in form, and in development of spines, 
but probably all may be referred to a single genus. 
{Gerrklcc Giiutlier, iv, 252-264.) 
306.— GERRES Cuvier. 
(Cuvier, Regue Auim. ed. 2, ii, 1829: tj^pe Gerres plumieri Cuv. & Val.) 
Character of the genus included above. (An ancient Latin name of 
some similar fish.) 
a. Preopercle serrate ; second spines of dorsal and anal much enlarged. (Gerres.) 
019. G. pliiiiaaei'i Cuv. &, Yal. 
Brilliant silvery, a blackish stripe along each row of scales, making 
about 12 streaks, the uiiper concurrent with the back and thus strongly 
curved ; fins, except the pectorals, dusky. Body compressed, the back 
much elevated, the profile steeply descending and somewhat concave, the 
snout rather ])ointed ; lips full, mouth quite small, the maxillary reaching 
front of the inipil of the large eye, which is longer than snout, 3^ in 
head; three rows of scales on cheek; scales large, smooth, adherent ; 
longest dorsal spine nearly as long as head, longer than longest anal 
spine ; pectorals narrow, pointed, reaching past tips of veutrals to anal ; 
caudal forked; ventral with a large accessory scale. Lat. 1. conspicuous, 
its scales 38. Head 3^ in length ; depth 2. D. IX, 12 ; A. Ill, 9, the last 
raj-s not much higher than the scaly sheath. West Indies, north to 
Eastern Florida. 
(Cuv. & Val. vi, 452; Gunther, iv, 253.) 
aa. Preopercle entire ; second spines of dorsal and anal little enlarged. (Diajkerus* 
Ranzaui.) 
* Diajkeriis Rauzani, N. Comm. Ac. Sc. Bol. 1841 : = Eucinostomus B. & G. (dianrs- 
poi, having the fin divided.) 
