450 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



with numerous lioruy, barbed or booked teeth. Gills 4, a slit behind 

 the fourth. Gill-inembranes either free or more or less joined to the 

 isthmus. Gill-rakers rather long. Pseudobranchiai i)resent. Cheeks 

 S3aly. Preopercle entire or serrate. Lateral line well developed. Dor- 

 sal fin single, long, with the spines few or weak, often obsolete ; anal fin 

 long, similar to the soft dorsal, usually with three small spines, which 

 are often depressible in a fold of skin ; ventrals thoracic or jugular, 

 normally I, 5, but sometimes reduced or altogether wanting ; caudal fin 

 lunate or forked. Usually no air-bladder. Pyloric coeca commonly nu- 

 merous Yertebric more than 10 -j- 14. Genera about 5; species 25-30. 

 Small fishes, found in most warm seas. The two subfamilies, both repre- 

 sented in our wiiters, differ widely from each other in general appear- 

 ance, but agree in the singular character of teeth in the oesophagus. 



{Scombi'ido} aud CarangidcB, pt. Giiather, ii, 397-404, 485. Genera Slromateus, Centro- 

 lophiis, aud Painmclas.) 



* Ventral fins minute or absent; opercular bones entire; scales minute; caudal fin 

 forked; premaxillaries not protractile. (Stromatelnce.) 

 a. Caudal peduncle not keeled ; gill-membranes free from tbe isthmus. 



STROx\rATEUS, 232. 



** Ventral fins well developed; V. I, 5; scales moderate ; premaxillaries protractile; 



caudal lunate. {Centrolophince.) 



J). Dorsal spines short and stout ; preopercle, interopercle, aud subopercle finely 



serrate Liuus, 233. 



232.— STaOKIATEUS Linnjcus. 



Harvest Fishes. 

 {Pejn-ilus and Rhombus Cuvier: Poronotus Gill.) 

 <(Artedi; Liunreus, Syst. Nat. : type Stroinateus fiatola L.) 



Body ovate or suborbicular, strongly compressed, tapering into a 

 slender caudal peduncle, which is not keeled or shielded. Head short, 

 compressed, the profile obtuse. Mouth small, terminal, the jaws sub- 

 equal. Premaxillaries not protractile. Jaws each with a single series 

 of weak teeth. Scales very small, cycloid, silvery, loosely inserted, 

 extending on the vertical fins. Opercular bones entire. Gill-mem- 

 branes separate, free from the isthmus ; gill-rakers moderate. Lateral 

 line continuous, concurrent with the back. Dorsal tin long, more or 

 less elevated in front, preceded by a few indistinct spines — usually one 

 or more procumbent spines in front of dorsal and anal, each of these 

 with a free point both anteriorly and posteriorly; anal fin similar to 

 dorsal, or shorter, usually with three small spines ', ventral fins wanting 

 in the adult, a rudiment sometimes visible in the young; a single small, 



