228 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



OREOSOMA ATLANTICUM, Cuvier and Valenciennes. 

 Oreoaomu alhinlifum. Ci'viek iiml yAl,ENClENNE.S, loc. cH., \A. xcix. — GiiNTllEK, loc. cit. 



An Orcosomo, dcscribt'd as liaviiig 25 or 20 large, conical, bony protuberances, four of 

 which arc on the back. 



Kadial formula: D. V, 29; A. 2(1; V. 1,5. 



Tills remarkable form is known only from a single specimen, obtained by Peron, the 

 French navigator, in " the Atlantic Ocean." It was probably taken in tlie surface net. The 

 type is IG lines in length. A full description is given by Cuvier and Valenciennes, who 

 refer to it as a little fish, whose height is equal to its length; covered with great cones, so 

 rugged and bold that a drawing of it resembles a map of a volcanic country. 

 Its affinities are believed by some ichtliyologists to be Berycoid. 



Family CAPROID^^, 



Caprida:, LowK, FislicK of Mailoira, xii, 1843. — Gill, Arrangement of the Families of Fishes, 1872, 9. (No. 



90.) 

 Caproida; (iiLL, Ceutiiry Dictionary, 809. 



Scombroidea with compressed and elevated body, covered with small, ctenoid scales ; 

 upper jaw protractile; vertebrie very numerous; dorsal in two parts; veutrals with 1 

 spine and 5 rays; teeth very small. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



I. Mouth very protractile ; teeth in jaws, vomer, and palatines Capros 



II. Mouth less protractile ; teeth iu jaws Antigonia 



Capros apek (,iftpr Cuvier.) 

 CAPROS, Lacepede. 



Capros, h&cf.rkTiF., Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv, p. 590.— Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., x, p. 29.— 

 Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 18(>2, p. 127. 



Body compressed and elevated; mouth very protractile. Scales rather small, spiny. 

 Two contiguous dorsals, the first with 9 spines, the anal with 3. No bony plates along 



