76. pomatomid:^. 447 



rather longer than soft dorsal, much longer than the abdomen, its last 

 rays forming similar finlet«; anal spines strong; ventral fins depres- 

 sible in a groove; i)ectoral fins very short. Species numerous in the 

 tropical seas. The American species belong to the subgenus or genus 

 Oligoplites, characterized by the toothless pterygoids and the peculiar 

 scales. The dorsal spines are sev^en in Scomhroides proj^er [Cliorinemus 

 Cuvier), the pterygoids are armed with teeth, and in most of the species 

 the scales are normally developed. {^xo/j.^Spo:;, mackerel; etJo?, like.) 



a. No pterygoid teeth ; scales linear, emheJidcil {OligojjUtes* Gill.) 

 TOy. S. OCCidentalJS (Liun.) J. & G. — Leather-jacket. 



Bluish above, bright silvery below ; fins yellow. Body lanceolate, 

 slender. Eye as long as snout, about 4 in head; opercles short. 

 Maxillary reaching beyond middle of orbit. Scales very long and 

 narrow, embedded in the skin, placed obliquely at angles with each 

 other, their appearance unlikeordinary scales. Fins low; pectoral as 

 long as eye and snout; caudal very deeply forked, the lobes equal. 

 Head 5 in length; depth 4. D. V, 1,20; A. II— I, 20. Both coasts of 

 Central America, and West Indies, north to New. York and Lower Cali- 

 fornia ; not rare southward. 



{Gastcrosteus occidentalis Linn. Syst. Nat.: Cliorlnemus oceidentalis Giiuther, ii, 475; 

 Oligopliics occiflentalis Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila. ISSJ, 166.) 



Family LXXVI.— POMATOMID^. 



( The Blue-Jishes.) 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with rather small scales, which 

 are weakly ctenoid. Caudal peduncle rather stout. Head large, com- 

 pressed. Mouth large, oblique. Premaxillaries protractile. Maxillary 

 not slipping under the preorbital, provided with a large supplemental 

 bone; lower jaw projecting; bands of villiform teeth on vomer and pal- 

 atines, those on the vomer forming a triangular patcli ; jaws each with a 

 single series of very strong, compressed, unequal teetli, widely set; upper 

 law with an inner series of small depressed teeth; villiform teeth on the 

 base of the tongue. Occipital keel strong ; free edge of preopercle pro- 

 duced ;ind serrated. Gill-membranes free from the istlunus, not united. 

 Brancbiostegals 7; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Pseudobranchije 

 large. Gill-rakers slender, rather few. Opercle ending in a flat point. 

 Cheeks and opercles scaly. Lateral line present, unarmed. Dorsal 



*Gill. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila. 1863, 166: type Gaaterosteua occidentalis L. 

 (oXtyoi, few; OTrXiTTj?, armed.) 



