146 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The description is based on a specimen about 285 mm. (215 mm, 

 from tip of upper jaw to base of caudal) long, taken by R. E. Coker 

 at Cap6n, Peru. This is the specimen described by Evermann and 

 RadclifFe (1917, p. 43) and apparently the only one reported from 

 Peru. The specimen was compared with others from Panama Bay 

 with which it agrees almost perfectly. The body is slenderer and the 

 mandible proportionately longer in small specimens than in large ones. 



Range.— Gvli of California to northern Peru. Recorded also from 

 the Galapagos Islands as H. robertsi by Snodgrass and Heller (1905, p. 

 349) and by Fowler (1932, p. 6), the specimens upon which the last- 

 mentioned record is based having been compared with the Peruvian 

 specimens by me. This species occurs also on the Atlantic coast, 

 where it ranges from New England to Brazil. 



Genus HEMIRAMPHUS Cuvier, 1817 



Body compressed, with nearly vertical sides; head rather low; man- 

 dible greatly produced, usually longer than rest of head; dorsal fin 

 longer than anal, its origin in advance of anal, its last ray somewhat 

 produced; ventral fins small, inserted much nearer base of caudal than 

 gill openings. 



A single species comes within the scope of the present work. 



HEMIRAMPHUS SALTATOR GHbert and Starks 



Balao 



Hemirhamphus saltaior Gilbert and Starks, 1904, p. 53, pi. 9, fig. 16, Panama 

 Bay (original description; compared with H. hrasiliensis) . — Meek and Hil- 

 DEBRAND, 1923, p. 235, Panama Bay (synonymy; description; range). 



Head (measured from tip of upper jaw) 4.4, 4.7; depth 6.1, 6.5; or 

 1.4, 1.4 in head; D. 12, 12; A. 14, 15; P. 11, 11; V. 6, 6; scales 56, 58. 



Body fairly compressed, the sides rather vertical; depth at base of 

 ventrals about 1.5 times the width; caudal peduncle compressed, its 

 depth 4.0, 3.7 in head; head slightly convex above, compressed, its 

 sides vertical; mandible greatly produced, its length in advance of tip 

 of upper jaw greater than rest of head, 3.7, 3.9 in length; snout 2.9, 

 3.0 in head; eye 4.8, 4.9; interorbital 4.25, 4.3; teeth in the jaws small, 

 in a narrow band in each jaw; gill rakers 28, 28 on lower limb of first 

 arch; scales rather thin, with broad membranous borders; modified 

 scales on head, and some rough sculpturing along upper edge of gill 

 covers; dorsal moderately elevated anteriorly, the longest rays about 

 as long as postorbital part of head, the last ray slightly produced, 

 origin of fin somewhat in advance of vent; anal smaller than dorsal, 

 its origin a little in advance of middle of dorsal base, the last ray 

 scarcely produced, its base 2.6, 2.6 in head; ventral deeply emarginate, 

 inserted less than half as far from origin of anal as from base of pec- 

 toral; pectoral long, 1.2, 1.2, in head. 



