coo COXTEIBUTIOXS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
Opercles naked, except aboYe. Scales on body rather small, in about CO 
transverse series, those on ventral region reduced in size. Lateral line 
continuous, abruptly decurved opposite the end of the soft dorsal. 
Dorsal fin long, low, continuous, the spinous part much the longer, 
with about 10 low, strong, subequal spines, each with a small cuta- 
neous appendage at tip; soft dorsal higher than spinous; anal similar 
to soft dorsal, with three stout, graduated spines; pectorals broad and 
rather short; caudal short, truncate, with rounded angles; the soft 
parts of the vertical fins with the membranes somewhat scaly; Ycntrals 
conspicuously behind pectorals. Branchiostegals 5. Gill-rakers very 
short and feeble; gill-membranes somewhat connected, Ivee from the 
isthmus. A single species known. (A latinization of the vernacular 
name “Tautogy^ which is of Indian origin.) 
942. T. oaaalis (L.) Gthr. — Tauiog ; Black-fish; Oyster-fish. 
Blackish; young greenish, with about three pairs of irregular chain- 
like bars, the sides sometimes reticulated; chin white. Pectorals short, 
rounded, not reaching the tips of the short ventrals. Head in length ; 
depth 3. D. XVI, 10; A. Ill, 8; Lat. 1. GO. Maine to South Carolina; 
a common food-fish. 
(Lahrus onitis Lidu. Syst. Nat.; Giiutlier, iv, 88: Tauioga americana Storer, Hist. 
Fish. Mass. 276.) 
317.— L.ACHN[0L.®:MIJS Cuvier & Valenciennes. 
Hog-fishcs. 
(Cuv. & Val. Hist. Nat. Poiss. xiii, 274, 1839: typo Lachnolcemus aigula C. & V. = 
Lahrus falcatus L.) 
Body strongly compressed, the back sharp and elevated, the profile 
long and steep. Snout shari). Mouth low, horizontal, the jaws narrow; 
premaxillary slipping under the membranaceous edge of the very broad 
jireorbital, which is twice the depth of the eye. Teeth in front prom- 
inent, canine-like, in a single series; no jiosterior canines. Cheeks and 
opercles with imbricate scales. Scales of moderate size, thin, adherent. 
Lateral line coinjilete. Dorsal with fourteen spines, the first three 
strong, falcate, produced in long streamers in the adult, the mem- 
branes between these spines very low, the filamentous tips longer than 
the head; other spines all low, gradually shorter to the eleventh; sec- 
ond dorsal and anal much produced ; caudal lobes falcate; third anal 
spine strong ; pectorals and ventrals short. One species known. 
velvety; throat, the pharyngeal bones being only partly provided 
with teeth, and the rest of their surface covered with a velvety mem- 
brane.) 
