93. EMBIOTOCID^. 585 



sal. D. IX, 10 ; A. Ilf, 7 ; P. 15 ; V. 1, 5 ; C. + 17 +. L. lat. 44 ; L. tians. 

 1%. The back has a slight tawny hue, interrupted as it blends with the 

 white of the sides by five or six indistinct scollopy incursions of the 

 body color, giving- the upper i)art of the side of the fish a marbled a})- 

 pearance." {Goode tt- Bean.) West coast of Florida. 



{Eucinontomiiiiharenf/uJns Goode & Hean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1879, V^2, 1540.) 



Family XCIII.— EMBIOTOCID^. 



{The Surf-Jishes.) 



Viviparous Labroids. Body ovate or oblong, compressed, covered 

 with cycloid scales of moderate size. Cheeks, operculum, and interoper- 

 culum scaly. Lateral line continuous, running high, without abrupt flex- 

 ure; not extending on the caudal fin. Head rather short. Mouth small, 

 terminal. Jaws with conical or compressed teeth of moderate or small 

 size, in one or two series. No teeth on vomer or palatines; no canines; 

 lower pharyngeals united, without suture, their teeth conical or paved. 

 Upper jaw freely protractile. Lips full, the lower either forming a free 

 border to the jaw or else attached by a frenum at the symphysis. Max- 

 illary short, without supplemental bone, slipping for most or nil of its 

 length under the preorbital. OjK^rcular bones entire. Branchiostegals 

 (or 5). Gill-rakers usually slender; gill-openings wide, the membranes 

 free from the isthmus or very slightlj' connected; pseudobranchiai 

 present; gills 4, a slit behind th;' fourth. Nostrils round, "2 on each 

 side. Dorsal fin single, long, with 8-18 usually slender spines, which 

 are depressible in a groove. A sheath of scales along the base of the an- 

 terior part of soft dorsal and posterior part of spinous dorsal ; this sheath 

 separated by a furrow from the scales of the body. Anal fin elongate, 

 with 3 moderate or small spines and 15-35 slender soft rays, its form 

 and structure differing in the two sexes. Ventral fins thoracic, I, 5. 

 Pectorals moderate. Caudal forked. Oviduct opening behind the vent, 

 the two apertures always distinctly separated. Air-bladder large, sim- 

 ple. Ko i)yloric coeca. Vertebra? 13-1!) + 10-23. 



Viviparous. The young are hatched within the body, where they 

 remain closely ])a('ked in a sac-like enlargement of the oviduct anah)- 

 gous to the uterus, until born. These foetal fishes bear at first little 

 resemblance to the parent, being closely com])ressed and having the 

 vertical fins exceedingly elevated. At birth tliey are from 1^ to 2i 

 inches in length, and similar to the adult in ai)i)earance, but more com- 

 l)ressed, and red in color. Since the announcement of their viviparous 



