390 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



aa. Skin smooth, without dermal ossifications. 



623. F. sera'ala Cuvicr. 



Grayish ; sometimes with a series of blue spots aloug the back or sides; 

 head silvery below. Form much as in the preceding, but head and body 

 broader and more depressed; edges of snout more distinctly serrated, 

 a foramen in the axil of pectoral. Snout 3f in length. Head 2|. D. 

 14; A. 13. Warm seas; rare northward ; perhaps the same as the pre- 

 ceding. 



(Cuvier, Regne Anira. 1817; Giiuther, iii, 533.) 



Family LXII— AULOSTOMATID^. 



[The Flute-mouths.) 



Body compressed, elongate, covered with small ctenoid scales. Lat- 

 eral line continuous. Head long ; mouth small, at the end of a long, 

 compressed tube. Lower jaw prominent, with a barbel at the symphy- 

 sis. Premaxillary feeble, not protractile ; maxillary broad, triangular, 

 with a supplemental bone. Teeth minute, in bands, on lower jaw and 

 vomer. Branchiostegals 4. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Pseudo- 

 branchire well developed. Gill-rakers obsolete. Gill-membranes sepa- 

 rate, free from the isthmus. Air-bladder large. Spinous dorsal pres- 

 ent, of 8-12 very slender free spines. Soft dorsal and anal rather long, 

 similar, posterior. Caudal small, rhombic, the middle rays longest, but 

 not produced into a filament. Ventrals abdominal, of six rays, all articu- 

 lated. Pectorals broad, rounded, the space in front of them scaly. Two 

 pyloric coeca. A single genus, with two species, found in tropical seas. 



{FlstularidcB pt. geuiis Aulostoma Giiiitlier, iii, 535-538.) 



191.— AUL.0ST01WA Lacdpode. 

 (Lac6p^de, Hist. Nat. Poiss. v, 357, 1803: type Flstnlaria ehlnensis L.) 



Characters of the genus included above, {au/.o-:, tube; (TT<j/j.a, mouth.) 



624. A. macMSatoiKi Val. 



Olivaceous, with one or two series of brown or blue dots along each 

 side of the back; another irn^gular series from the preoperculum along 

 each side of the belly to the anal fin; three or four silvery lines on each 

 side of abdomen, replaced on the head by irregular oblique streaks ; 

 anterior i)art of dorsal and anal with a horizontal black streak; caudal 

 fin usually with two round black spots; ventral fins plain. D. X-23; 

 A. 25; V. G. [Giinthcr.) Caribbean Sea, north to Southern Florida; 

 probably identical with A. chincme. 



(Valenc. iuCuv. Rogue Animal, 1817: AaJostomacoloratum Miiller & Trosch. Schomb. 

 Hist. Barbad. 1848, 673: Aulostoma coloratum Giiuther, iii, 530.) 



