lOOl.j NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 293 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW HEMIRAMPHID. 

 BY HENRY W. FOWLER. 



The specimen described below was found amoug; a miscellaneous 

 collection of small and young fishes presented to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia many years ago by Dr. William 

 H. Jones, of the United States Navy. 



I propose a new genus and species for this specimen after a 

 comparison with equally small examples, some smaller, of Hypo- 

 rhamphm and Hemirami^hus. These seem to differ but little 

 from the adults, and that principally in the shorter beak, which 

 is absent altogether in some. Perhaps a comparison of the adults 

 and young of the other members of the Hemiramphidce may 

 result in still greater diflferences. 



The specimen in question is strikingly like Fodiator aeutus 

 (Cuvier and Valenciennes), which it resembles in many respects, 

 though differing altogether in having a beak one and a half times 

 the length of the head. The young of all the Exocoetidce exam- 

 ined do not differ materially from the adults, and it seems hardly 

 likely that a beak as long as the present specimen possesses is 

 developed in l,he young of Fodiator. Undoubtedly we have in 

 this specimen an annectant form between Euleptorhaviphus among 

 the Hemiramphidce and Fodiator among the Exocoetidce. 



HEMIEXOC(ETUS gen. nov. 

 Body moderately elongate, compressed and covered with rather 

 large deciduous scales. The sides of the body are more or less 

 rounded and not especially flattened or compressed. The dorsal 

 and ventral lines are more or less parallel. The upper jaw is very 

 short, and the lower jaw is produced into a long, pointed, slender 



\^^ 



beak, at least one and a half times as long as the head. Teeth 

 minute. Head large and the eye is also large. No finlets. Cau- 

 dal forked and the lower lobe much the longest and strongest. 

 D. and A. more or less similar, and the origin of the former in 



