I30 



VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



on the palatines, vomer, pterygoids or tongue; branchiostegals 7: 

 about 30 genera and 150 species, mostly in warm seas; a few in fresh 

 water, i in the United States. 



Aplodinotus Rafinesque. With the characters of the family: 

 I species. 



A. grunniens Raf. Sheephead (Fig. 62). Length up to 1,100 mm.; 

 weight up to 50 lbs.; head 3.3; depth 3; color silvery; dusky above; 

 rays of dorsal fins IX-I, 25 to 30; anal II, 7; scales 9-55-13; lower 

 pharyngeals very large, with blunt teeth; head scaly: Great Lakes 



Fig. 62. — Aplodinotus grunniens (from Jordan cf Evermann). 



to Alabama and Texas, between the Alleghenies and the Great Plains; 

 common in large streams and lakes; an inferior food fish in the north, 

 but not in the south. 



Order 15. Holconoti. — The surf fishes. Viviparous fishes with 

 united pharyngeals, an increased number of vertebrae, cycloid scales 

 and many rays in the soft dorsal and anal fins: i family. 



Family Embiotocidae. — Body elliptical, compressed cheeks, opercles 

 and interopercles scaly; lateral line continuous; branchiostegals 5 or 

 6: 17 genera and about 20 species, all marine but one. 



Hysterocarpus Gibbons. Body ovate; back elevated; dorsal fin 

 single, the spinous portion very long; anal fin very long: i species. 



H. traski Gibbons. Length 100 mm.; head 3.3; depth 2; color 

 brown above; sides yellowish, with fine dots; throat and belly yellow; 

 rays of dorsal fin XVI to XVIII, 11; anal III, 22: rivers of central 

 California; locally abundant. 



Order 16. Cataphracti. — The mailed cheeked fishes. Fishes 

 with a bony process of the suborbital ring extending across the cheek 

 to or towards the preopercle: 22 families, most of them marine, i in 

 fresh water. 



