22 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY 
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tweezers or seen with a hand-glass. The appendages of the anterior 
gill-arch only are thus enlarged, those of the other arches remaining 
undeveloped. 
In Xenotis, the gill-rakers are not essentially dissimilar on the differ- 
ent arches. They are short, comparatively thick, soft, having a cartila- 
ginous or unossified basis, and are nearly destitute of teeth or tooth-like 
roughnesses. The brilliant colors, low dorsal spines, and especially the 
great development of the opercular flap in Xenotis, form additional dis- 
tinetive characters, although not independently of generic value. 
13. XENOTIS SOLIS, ( Valenciennes) Gill & Jordan. 
Pomotis solis, *VALENCIENNES (1831), Hist. Nat. des Poissons, vii, 468. (Specimens sent 
by Le Sueur trom ncar New Orleans. Those referred to from New York doubt- 
less belong to Lepiopomus auritus.) 
Numerous specimens of a sun-fish from the Tangipahoa River, Lou- 
isiana, have been identified by us with Valéncienues’s species as above, 
and examples have been distributed by the United States National Mu- 
seum under the name of Xenotis solis. Of course, it is not possible from 
Valenciennes’s description to know certainly which one of our numerous 
similar species he had in mind, but it is safer to identify with the pres- 
ent species than with any other, and our X. solis does not seem ever to 
have received any other name. 
Xenotis solis is an elongate species for the genus, most of the species 
of which are short and deep. It is, however, heavy forward, the re- 
gion before the dorsal being quite prominent, forming a marked angle 
over the eye with the rising profile of the face. The greatest depth is 
24 in the length. The head is large, 3 in length, without the opercular 
flap ; 24 including the flap. 
* The following is Valenciennes’s description :— 
Le POMOTIS SUN-FISH (Pomotis solis nob.). 
Un autre pomotis du lac Pontchartrain, envoyé par M. Le Sueur, pourrait bien encore 
étre d’une espéce distincte. 
La couleur parait d’étre un jaune verddtre uniform, plus ou moins doré, sans aucune 
trace de taches ou de raies sur le corps et sur les nageoires. Le lambeau de loreille 
est plus long et plus étroit que dans aucun autre. Les nombres sont, D. 10-11: A. 3- 
10, ete. 
Il est long de quatre & cing pouces. 
Les Anglo-Américains de la Nouvelle-Orléans donnent & cette espéce le nom de sun- 
jish (poisson de soleil). M. Le Sueur ne nous explique pas ce qui a motivé cette 
dénomination. 
Nous rapportons a cette espéce des individus mal colorés, qui nous ont été envoyés 
de New York par M. Milbert. 
