258 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



Family XXXIV.— ALBULID^. 



{The Lady-Jishes.) 



Body rather elongate, little compressed, covered with rather small, 

 brilliantly silvery scales. Head naked. Snout conic, siibquadraugvilar, 

 shaped like the snout of a pig, and overlapping 'the small, inferior, hor- 

 izontal mouth. Maxillary rather strong, short, with a distinct supple- 

 mental bone, slipping under the membranous edge of the very broad 

 preorbital. Premaxillaries short, not protractile. Lateral margin of 

 upper jaw formed by the maxillaries. Eye large, median in head, with 

 a bony ridge above it, and almost covered by an annular adipose eye- 

 lid. Opercle moderate, firm. Preopercle with a broad, flat, membra- 

 naceous edge, which extends backward over the base of the opercle. 

 Pseudobranchice present. Gill-rakers short, tubercle-like. Gill-mem- 

 branes entirely separate, free from isthmus. Branchiostegals about 

 1^4. A fold of skin across gill-membranes anteriorly, its j)osterior free 

 edge crenate. No gular plate. Both jaws, vomer, and i^alatines with 

 bands of villiform teeth. Broad patches of coarse, blunt, paved teeth 

 on the tongue behind and on the sphenoid and pterygoid bones. Lat- 

 eral line present. Belly not carinate, flattish, covered with ordinary 

 scales. Dorsal fin moderate, in front of ventrals, its membranes scaly. 

 No adipose fin. Anal very small. Caudal widely forked. Pyloric coeca 

 numerous. A single species known, found in all warm seas. 



{Clupeidw gvouii Alhalina Giintlier, vii, 468, 469.) 



116.— ALBUL.A Grouovins. 



(Gronovius; Blocli & Schnoidcr, Syst. Iclith. 1801, 432: type Alhula conorhynchus 

 Blocli & Scbueider =i?sox vulpes L.) 



Characters of the genus included above. (Latin alhus^ white.) 



431. A. vulpes (L.) Goodc, — Lady-fish; Bone-fish. 



Brilliantly silvery; olivaceous above; back and sides with faint streaks 

 along the rows of scales ; fios jilain ; axils dusky. Upper lobe of 

 caudal the longer. A band of peculiar, elongate, membranaceous 

 scales along middle line of back; accessory ventral scale large. He;id 

 3f; depth 4. D. 15; A. 8; scales 9-71-7. L. 18 inches. Cape Cod to 

 Southern California and East Indies; abundant in tropical seas. Not 

 much valued as food, but beautiful and gamy. 



{Esox vulpes L. Syst. Nat. : Alhula conorhyuchus Giinther, vii, 468.) 



