NO. 1499. THE HERRINGS OF JAPAN— JORDAN AND HERRE. 641 



Stomach with a blind sac; intestines short; pyloric appendages none. 

 With two exceptions ChirocevtruK hypselosoma Bleeker and C. doraJ), 

 all the species referred to this family arc extinct. 



16. CHIROCENTRUS Cuvier. 



Chiroceiitru-'i Cuvier, Regne Animal, 1817, p. 178 (dorab). 



Characters of the genus included above: 

 (X^/p, hand; Kevrpov^ spine.) 



i8. CHIROCENTRUS DORAB (Forskal). 



Clupea dorab Forskal, Descr. Anim., 1775, p. 72 (Red Sea). 



Esox chirocentrus Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1803, p. 296. 



Chirocentrus dorah RI^ppell, N. W. Fische, 1837, p. 81 (Red Sea). — Gunther, 

 Cat. Fi.sh., VII, 1868, p. 475.— Bleeker, Atlas Clup., 1870, p. 92 (East 

 Indies).— Day, Fishes cf India, I, 1878, p. 652, pi. cl.wi, fig. 3 (India).- 

 Jordan and Evermann, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1902, p. 327 (Formosa). 



Habitat. — East Indies, occasionally northward to Japan. 



Head about 6 in length; depth about 7; D. 17; A. 3o; P. 13; v. 6; 

 eye 4^ in head; snout 3i; mandible If; interorbital space 5i; caudal 

 peduncle compressed, 2^. Body elongate, compressed; ventral margin 

 sharp; head small, subconical; interorbital space flat with a prominent 

 median ridge anterior!}^; snout short; eye covered with adipose lid; a 

 conspicuous fossa before eye; mouth terminal, wide, oblique, the lower 

 jaw strongly projecting; upper lip terminating in a short pointed 

 cutaneous flap; maxillary not large, reaching posteriorly a little be3'ond 

 anterior margin of eye; mandible longer than maxillary; lower jaw 

 with large canine teeth; two pairs of similar teeth projecting forward 

 from center of premaxillaries; remainder of upper jaw armed with 

 straight, sharp teeth, which soon become much smaller posteriorly; 

 villiform teeth in narrow bands on tongue, palatines, and pterygoid. 

 Gill openings large, membranes free from isthmus; gill rakers short, 

 fine; gill filaments a little longer, fine; pseudobranchia^ none. 



Scales small, deciduous, totally absent in our specimen; short cirri 

 along Avhole extent of abdomen. Radiating, branching mucous canals 

 beneath eye. 



Dorsal small, very far back, its origin above that of anal; anal low, 

 long, about 5i in total length; caudal long, deeply forked; pectorals 

 small, thoracic, the two fins meeting when depressed; basally covered 

 b}^ a long, pointed, cutaneous flap; a large, pointed, dermal, subosse- 

 ous appendage in ttie axilla; ventrals very small, their origin midway 

 between tip of mandible and base of caudal. 



Color bluish black above, gradually paling on sides to bluish sil- 

 very; belly silvery white; fins uniform brownish. 



Here described from a single specimen 9j inches long, obtained bv 

 the Imperial University from the Kuro Shiwo near Misaki, the only 

 record of the species from Japan. 

 Proc. N. M. vol. xxxi— 06 42 



