260 SCOMBRESOCTD^. 



plate. Both jaws Avith a narrow band of minute teeth*. Body 

 elongate, slender, covered with scales of large or moderate size. All 

 the dorsal and anal raj-s connected by a membrane. Gill-openings 

 very wide. Intestinal track simple, without pyloric appendages. 

 Air-bladder large. 



Seas between and near to the tropics; many species entering 

 fresh waters. 



Very young specimens have the lower jaw not prolojiged. 



The numerous species may be subdivided thus : — 



A. Pectoral short. 



a. Caudal forked or emarginate, p. 260. 



b. Caudal rounded, p. 272. 



aa. Dorsal rays much more numerous than anal ; beak with 

 minute teeth along each edge : Hemirhamphodon (Blkr.), 

 p. 272. 



bb. Number of dorsal rays not much exceeding that of anal ; 

 dorsal fin connuencing before or above the origin of the 

 anal ; males with dorsal and anal rays moditied. Vi- 

 viparous : Zenarchopteriis (Gill), p. 273. 



cc. Anal rays more numerous than dorsal ; anal commencing 

 before dorsal tin : Dermatogenys (v. Hass.), p. 275. 



B. Pectoral elongate. 



a. Beak very long : Euleptorhmnjihus (GUI), p. 276. 



b. Beak shortened : Oxyporhanqjhus (Gill), p. 276. 



A. Pectoral short, 

 a. Caudal forked or emarginate, 



1. Hemirhamplius intermedius. 



Hemirhamphus intermedius. Cant. Ann. l^ Mag, Nat, Hist. 1842, ix. 



p. 485 ; Hichards, Ichth. Chin. p. 264. 

 Hemirhamphus melanochir, Cuv. 8f Val. xix. p. 41. 



D. 15-17. A. 18-20. P. 11. 

 Scales of moderate size, very deciduous. The length of the entire 

 head is contained twice and three-fourths or twice and four-fifths in 

 the total (without caudal), the length of the lower jaw (beyond the 

 extremity of the ujiper jaw) five times and a half. The triangular 

 part of the upper jaw, formed by the intermaxillaries, is longer than 

 broad. The diameter of the eye equals the width of the interorbital 

 space, and is contained once and a half or once and two-thirds in the 

 length of the postorbital part of the head. Praeorbital as long as 

 high. The root of the ventral fin is midway between the base of the 

 caudal and that of the pectoral. Dorsal and anal fins scaleless, the 

 origins of both being nearly opposite. Caudal fin emarginate, the 



* These teetli are in many species tricuspid, either in both jaws or in the lower 

 only. No systematic value can be attached to such a difference when it is observed 

 in a rudimental organ like the teeth of Hemirhamphus 



