274 SHUFELDT, [ Vou. II. 
tain lights; the caudal fin rays were of a reddish tint. Eye 
inclining to white. 
FamiLy: The characters which are presented us in this fish 
are of such an extraordinary nature that they will not permit 
us to place their possessor in any of the recognized families of 
fishes. Its nearest affinities are with the Beryczde and with the 
Carangide, two families widely separated from each other; I 
am inclined to believe that its better place is along-side of the last- 
named one. Its resemblance to the BLeryctde is seen in the 
large eye; the asperity of the cranium; the rugosities upon the 
fin rays; the ventrals composed of more than five soft rays, 
over and above the spiny one; its resemblance to the Carangide 
is seen in the two free spines which precede the anal fin, and 
especially to Serzo/as for lacking the bony plate of the lat- 
eral line; but in the number of its vertebrz it approaches the 
Scombrid@, as the shape of its ventral fins are in pattern analo- 
gous to those of the Acanthurid@, and its unramified fin rays 
agree with the Balistide. 
The character of the scale, to which ichthyologists have 
attached so much importance, separates it from all other forms 
known to me. 
My examination, then, authorizes me in establishing the fam- 
ily Grammtcolepide, based upon the following characters: Lat- 
eral line unarmed with bony plates; ventral fins composed of 
more than five soft rays; two free postanal spines; caudal ver- 
tebrze numerous; scales very long and narrow, without fan-like 
expansions or denticulations. 
Genus: The genus Grammtcolepis has for its etymology ypap- 
puxos, line ; Nézris, scale. 
The characters, in addition to those I have already pointed 
out for the family, are: Body deep, compressed; eye large; 
mouth small; head, in part, rugose, which also applies to the 
interoperculum and the preoperculum; to all appearances a lim- 
ited number of branchiostegal rays; teeth mere asperities, the 
palatine arch without them; two dorsals, the first short, the 
second very extensive, its height insensibly increasing ; pectoral 
short and rounded; the dorsal, anal, and pectoral fin rays do 
not ramify at their extremities. 
History: I saw this fish for the first time in Havana, on the 
5th of April, 1872, and I have not observed it since; neither 
