SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



209 



181. VOMER SETIPINNIS (Mitchill). 

 "Moon-fish"; "Sun-fish"; Horse-fish. 



Zeus aetipinnis Mitchill, Transactions Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 1815, 384; New York. 

 Vomer setipinnis. Yarrow, 1877, 208; Beaufort. .Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 376; Beaufort. Jordan, 1886, 27; 

 Beaufort. Jenkins, 1887, 88; Beaufort. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 934, pi. cxliv, fig. 392. 



Diagnosis. — Depth in adult .5 total length, in young .6 to .8 length; head contained 3.5 

 times in length, anterior profile steep, forehead very prominent, snout projecting, mouth 

 oblique, maxillary extending to front of eye; plates on lateral line about 20; dorsal rays viii + 1, 

 21 or 22; anal rays ii + 1,19 or 20; these fins very low in adults; ventral fins very small; pectorals 

 about length of head. Color: pale green above, silvery on sides; a black blotch at angle of 

 lateral line in yoimg. (seHpinnis. bristle-finned.) 



Fig. 87. Moon-fish; Horse-fish. Vomer setipinnis. 



Found along the entire east coast of the United States, but not common 

 northward; its range extends through the West Indies to Brazil, and, on the 

 Pacific coast, from Mexico to Peru. Yarrow records it from Beaufort as " abun- 

 dant inthe fall, numbers being taken on the outer beach in company with mullet". 

 Its local North Carolina names are "moon-fish" and ", sun-fish", and it is not 

 distinguished by the fishermen from Selene vomer. It reaches a length of a foot, 

 and is a good food fish, but is seldom marketed. 



Genus SELENE L&ciphde. Moon-fishes. 

 Marine fishes of very peculiar shape, body greatly compressed and much 

 elevated, anterior profile very steep, edges of body sharp; head short and deep 

 with a prominent angle at nape; mouth small, with protractile premaxillaries 

 and broad maxillaries with supplemental bone; jaws, tongue, vomer, and palatals 

 with minute teeth; gill-rakers long and slender; scales small, lateral line without 

 bony plates; soft dorsal and anal fins with anterior rays much elongated, spinous 

 dorsal rays filiform in young, anal spines becoming obsolete in adult, ventrals 

 very long in young and minute in adult. Two American species, one found on 

 the east coast, {Selene, moon.) 



