[39] CATALOGUE OF THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Family XLIV.— SYNODONTlD^.i (42 part.) 



122.— SYNODUS (Groiiow) Bloch & Schneider. 



'^> Sytiodus. 



477. Synodus fcetens Linnaeus. S. (463) 



478. Synodus spixianus^ Poey. W. 



479. Synodus scitulicepa -^ Jordan «fe Gilbert. P. 



480. Synodus lucioceps Ayres. C. (464) 



481. Synodus anolis-" Cuv. &Val. W, (4646.) 



^ Trachinocephalm Gill. 



482. Synodus myopa Forster. S. W. (465) 



123.— B ATHYSAURUS « Gunther. 



483. Bathysaurus agassizii Goode & Bean. B. 



Family XLV.— SCOPELID^. (42) 

 124.— MYCTOPHUM Rafiuesque. (131) 



484. Myctophum crenulare Jordan & Gilbert. C. (466) 



• Apparently those genera of the group called in the synopsis Scopelidce, which have 

 the maxillary rudimentary and adnate to the preniaxillary, or sometimes entirely 

 ■wanting, should be detached from Scopelidcr, to form a separate family, which has 

 been called Synodontidce by Professor Gill. To this group belong, in our fauna, the 

 genera Synodus and Bathysaurus, as well as the Old World genera of Harpodon and 

 Saurida. 



"^Synodus spixianusVoej . Lagarto : Soap-fish. 



Sandy gray, light or dark, much mottled above with darker olive ; branchiostegals 

 pale yellowish; top of head without distinct vermiculations; dorsal scarcely barred; 

 caudal dusky ; other fins pale, with little or i^o yellow in life ; lower parts of head 

 mottled with dusky. No scapular spot ; tip of snout not black. General form and 

 appearance of S. fcetens, the teeth rather stronger; the jaws a little longer; the upper 

 1^ in head. Dorsal fin shorter and higher, its free edge more oblique than in S. fcetens, 

 its anterior rays when depressed extending beyond the tips of the posterior, If in 

 head. Scales about as in .^'./ajteHS. Pectorals 2 in head ; ventrals IJ. D. 1, 9. A. 11 

 or 12. Lat. 1. 60. Florida Keys and Cuba. Abundant. 



{Saurus sjnxianiis Poej'. Memorias Cuba, ii, 304, 1860 ; Poey, Euum. Pise. Cubens., 

 1875, 141, Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1884, 107.) 



For a detailed account of this and other American species of Synodus, see Meek 

 Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1884, 130. 



^Synodus sdtuliceps Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1881, 344. Mazatlan to 

 Panama. 



■•The species described in the Synopsis (ii. 889) as Synodus intermedius, is not that 

 species, but a different one, Saurus anolis Cuv. & Va*!., xxii, 1849, 43S^Synodu8 cuhanus 

 Poey, Euum. Pise. Cubens. 1875, 143. Saurus intermedius Agassiz & Spix. = Sytiodus 

 intermedius Poey, Euum. Pise. Cubens. 1875, 143, has the mouth smaller than in S. 

 anolis, the scales larger (lat. 1. 45), the scapular region without distinct black spot, 

 and the coloration less variegated. S. inieniifdius is common in Cuba, but has not yet 

 been noticed in our waters. In the adult of »S. anolis, the lower parts are marked by 

 stripes formed by an orange spot on each scale ; the number of cross-bars is usually 

 doubled by the jtresence of a shorter one between each pair. 



5 Bathysaurus Giiuther. 

 (Giinther Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug., 1878, 181) ; type Bathysaurus ferox Gnniher.) 

 Body formed as in Synodus, subcylindrical, elongate, covered with small scales. 



