DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIK DISTKIIJUTION. 213 



Radial formula: D. 52; A. 44. 



Color, silvery. 



The type was from the coast of Carolina, sent to Paris t»y M. Bosc. 



Family STROM ATEID..^. 



I Stromatini, Rafinesque, Iiidice d'lttidlogia .Sitiliana, 1810, 39. 



Stromatdni, Hoxaparte, Catologo Metodico, Pesci Europei, 184G, 76 (subfam. of CorijphivnUhr). 

 Stromatinioc, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes., etc., 1830, il, 177. 

 Stromateina, Gunthee, Cat. Fisli. Brit. Mus., ii, 1860, 397. 



Stromateidw, QiLi^, Arr. Familieb Fishes, 1872, 8 (No. 83); Trans. Amer. Pliil. Soc, 1881, 661. — .Jordan and 

 Gilbert, Bull, xvi, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Scombroids, with body compressed aud more or less elevated, covered witli small or 

 minute cycloid scales. Profile anteriorly blunt aud rounded. IMouth small. Premaxillaries 

 protractile or not. Dentition feeble; no teeth on vomer or x^alatines ; (esophagus arn)ed 

 with numerous horny, barbed, or hooked teeth, (iills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Gill 

 membranes either free or more or less joined to the isthmus. Gill rakers rather long. 

 Pseudobranchi;e present. Cheeks scaly. Preopercle entire or serrate. Lateral line well 

 developed. Dorsal fin single, long, with the spines few or weak, often obsolete; anal fin 

 long, similar to the soft dorsal, usually with 3 small spines, which are often depressible 

 in a fold of skin; veutrals thoracic or jugnlar, normally I, 5, but sometimes reduced or 

 altogether wanting ; caudal fin lunate or forked. Usually iio au.- bladiler. Pyloric cajca 

 commonly numerous. Vertebne more than 10+14. 



The members of this family are, as a rule, surface-dwellers. Among them is the Eud- 

 der lishor Log fish, Leirus pcrciformis, common every where in summer, lurking under float- 

 ing spars and driftwood, and often swimming under the keels of vessels. The Harvest fish, 

 Stromatem triacanthus, is also found near the surface, swimming under large Medus;e. 

 Apolectus isprobably the young of Stromatcns and Hoplocoryphis i)robably thatof Sehedophi- 

 lus. In all warm seas the young of the various species of this family are sure to occur iu 

 the pelagic surtace fauna. 



CENTROLOPHUS, Lacepede. 



Centrolophus, LAc£pi:DE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv, 441.— Covier .and Valencienes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ix, 330.— 



GiJNTHEi!, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., ii, 402. — Day, Fishes of Great Britaiu aud Irelaud, i, 110. 

 Pompilus, Lowe, Proc. Zoijl. Soc, London, 1839, 81. 

 Acentrolophas, Nardo, Prod. lohth. Adr., 62. 



Stromateids, with elongate body covered with minute scales. Lateral line arched an- 

 teriorly. Mouth moderate or small. Teeth small, in jaws only. Vomer, palatines and 

 tongue toothless. Epibrauchial bone of fourth arch with long toothless processes. Dorsal 

 long, continuous, without spinous division. Anal with the thii anterior rays unbranched, 

 resembling feeble spines. Veutrals thoracic, moderate. Pectorals moderate. Caudal 

 furcate. Bones of vertical fins scaly. Air bladder small. Pyloiie appendages, nine or ten. 



This genus is rei)resented by two species recorded from the Atlantic. C. pompiUts (Lac.) 

 C. andV., is not very unusual in the vicinity of Nice, though rare elsewhere in the Medi- 

 terranean, aud has occasionally been taken in the Atlantic as far north as the Britisli Isles 

 and south to Gibraltar and Madeira. G. hritaimious, Giinther, is known from a single speci- 

 men cast ashore on the coast of Cornwall iu 1859. Both forms are well figured by Day, 

 pi. XL. The "Blackfishes" undoubtedly swim at times near the surface, but there is 

 ground for supposing that they live also at considerable depths, especially V. britannicm. 



There are other species catalogued by the Italian and Pnmch ichthyologists under the 

 name Centrolophus, but none of them appear to be other than surface-swimming forms. 

 They are all exceedingly rare and not well understood. 



