FISHES OP WEST COAST OF PERU. 63 



Body deep, strongly compressed, greatest depth under origin of 

 soft dorsal; dorsal outline strongly and evenly arched; snout blunt- 

 ish; interorbital high, evenly arched, somewhat compressed; eye 

 small, anterior in position; mouth moderate, nearly horizontal; 

 jaws subequal; maxillary reaching vertical at middle of eye; teeth 

 in lower jaw in a narrow villiform band, those in upper jaw small, 

 confined mainly to a single row" ; angle of preopercle rounded, with 

 a long downward curve. Scales small, smooth; lateral line nearly 

 straight; head without scales. Dorsal spines short, stout, not con- 

 nected by membrane; soft dorsal and anal falcate; caudal forked; 

 ventrals small, their tips reach midway from base to origin of anal ; 

 pectorals short. Gillrakers slender, 5-1-12, the last three given in 

 this count are rudimentary, the longest is about half the diameter of 

 the eye. 



Color in alcohol : Back dusky bluisli ; sides and belly silvery, tinged 

 with salmon or yellowish; head and fins tinged with salmon; top of 

 head, dorsal, caudal, and pectorals, dusky. 



Cape San Lucas, Mazatlan, southward to Peru. 



Family STROMATEIDAE. 



THE FIATOLAS. 



KEY TO GBNHRA. 



a\ Ventral fins present in the adult ; esophagus with longitudinal plications ; 

 lateral line curved anteriorly, becoming straight before reaching the 

 caudal peduncle; body ovate Lefn/s, p. 63. 



«^ Ventral flns absent in the adult ; esophagus vs^ithout longitudinal plications ; 

 gill membranes not joined to the isthmus; pelvis not projecting as a 

 spine Stromateus,p.6'k. 



Genus LEIRUS Lowe. 



91. LEIRUS PERUANUS (Steindachner). 



CentrolopMs peruanus Steindachnek, Ichth. Beitr. (I), Sitzb. Akad. 



Wiss. Wien, vol. 69, 1874, p. 10; Callao; Fauna Chilensis, 1898, p. 



299. — Abbott, Marine Fishes of Peru, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 



1899, p. 347. 

 Lcirus peruanus Fordice, Rev. Amer. Stramateidae, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Phila., 1884, p. 317.— Delfin. Cat. Feces de Chile, 1901. p. 58. 

 Lirus peruanus Regan, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (7) vol. 10, 1902, p. 200. 



