THE LADY-FISHES 



Family X. Albultdcs 



Body rather long, not much compressed, covered with rather 

 small, brilliantly silvery scales; head naked; snout conic, subquad- 

 rangular, shaped like that of a pig and overlapping the small, in- 

 ferior, horizontal mouth; maxillary rather strong, short, with a 

 distinct supplemental bone; premaxillaries short, not protractile; 

 jaws, vomer, and palatines with bands of villiform teeth; broad 

 patches of coarse, blunt teeth on the tongue; eye large, median in 

 head, a bony ridge above it, and almost covered with an an- 

 nular adipose eyelid; preopercle with a broad, flat, membranaceous 

 edge; pseudobranchiae present; gill-membranes entirely separate 

 and free from the isthmus; a fold of skin across gill-membranes 

 anteriorly; no gular plate; lateral line present; belly tlattish; cov- 

 ered with ordinary scales; caudal widely forked. 



This family contains but a single species. 



Lady-fish ; Bone-fish ; Banana-fish 



Albula vulpes (Linnaeus) 



This beautiful and active fish is almost universally distributed 

 on sandy coasts in all tropical seas. It ranges northward as far 

 as San Diego and Long Island, and is generally abundant. It is 

 a fish of very attractive appearance, usually litttle valued as food, 

 though in some places, as at Key West, it is held in high 

 esteem. As a game-fish it is highly appreciated by those famil- 

 iar with it. It resembles, in this respect, the ten-pounder. 



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