FISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEAS AND ADJACENT WATERS 415 



U.S.N.M. No. 83309. No locality (labeled "Fiji," which is surely erroneous; 

 obtained more likely in the Philippines?). Wilkes Exploring Expedition. 

 Length, 124 mm. 



Family SILLAGINIDAE 



Body long, rather slender or tapering from spinous dorsal forward 

 and backward, little or slightly compressed. Head elongate, with 

 conic contour and forehead depressed. Eyes lateral or directed little 

 upward, nearly median. Mouth small, terminal, cleft short. Pre- 

 maxillaries protractile. Teeth small, in jaws and on front of vomer, 

 none on palatines. Preopercle entire or crenulated, bent to cover 

 under surface of head. Opercle small, with short spine. Gill opening 

 wide. Pseudobranchiae present. Branchiostegals 6. Stomach 

 coecal. Pyloric appendages few. Air bladder simple. Skull with 

 mucous cavities. Vertebrae 34 to 43, of which 22 to 27 caudal. 

 Scales small, ctenoid. Lateral line complete to caudal base or little 

 beyond, nearly straight. Dorsals 2, first short and second with long 

 base. Anal with 1 or 2 small spines, like soft dorsal. Caudal emar- 

 ginate, lobes rounded. Pectorals normal. Ventrals with spine and 

 5 rays, thoracic, nearly scaleless. 



Shore fishes of small or moderate size, living in the Indo-Pacific 

 and valued as food. In several respects they approach the Sciaenidae. 

 The rather few species were listed and their generic divisions best 

 determined by Gill in 1861. These results, with slight modification, 

 are followed in the present work. 



ANALYSIS OF GENERA 



o'. SiLLAGiNAE. Snout couic; teeth uniformly small; dorsal spines 10 to 12, 

 moderate. 

 bK Scales moderately small, 50 to 80; dorsal spines 10 or 11; soft dorsal and 



anal subequal Sillago . 



b*. Scales very small, about 170; dorsal spines 12; soft dorsal much longer 



than anal Sillaginodes. 



o*. SiLLAGiNOPSiNAE. Snout depressed; outer teeth in front enlarged; scales small, 

 about 90; dorsal spines 9, second elongated Sillaginopsis. 



Genus SILLAGO Cuvier 



Sillago Cuvier, R^gne Animal, vol. 2, p. 258, 1817. (Type, Sillago acuta Cuvier, 

 designated by Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1861, p. 503.) 



Silago Swainson, Nat. Hist. Animals, vol. 2, p. 205, 1839. (Type, Sillago acuta 

 Cuvier.) 



Body long, slender, little compressed, rounded above to level below. 

 Head conic, elongate, compressed, gradually narrowed forward. Eyes 

 moderate or large, nearly median. Mouth small, jaws nearly even or 

 lower shorter. Teeth vilHform. Scales 50 to 90 in lateral line. First 

 dorsal slopes down backward, spines 11 or 12, rays 17 to 23. Anal 

 with 2 slender spines, nearly long as second dorsal, rays 15 to 23. 

 Caudal emarginate. Ventral spine sometimes cartilaginous. 



