THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 24 
Ni 
Genus TRICHIURUS Linnzus. 
‘Thhe,tiair ails. 
PLATE 23. 
Trichiurus lepturus (Linnzus). 
Cutlass Fish. Hair Tail. Ribbon Fish. 
Head 7% ; depth 15%; D. 134; A. CVII; mandible 2 in head; 
pectoral 3% ; fiftieth dorsal ray 214; snout 2% in head measured 
from tip of upper jaw; eye 7; maxillary 2% ; interorbital space 7. 
Body extremely elongate, band-like, and tapering to a very 
slender tail. Head long with wide mouth. Snout long, pointed, 
and curved a little. Eye circular, high and a trifle anterior. 
Mandible well protruding and with a horny tip. Maxillary 
reaching past front of pupil and its distal expansion a little less 
than latter. Jaws armed with very strong knife-like unequal 
teeth, upper with 4 long strongly compressed barbed fangs. 
Palatine teeth uniserial, small, none on vomer. Nostrils a little 
above center, but close to front rim of orbit. Interorbital space 
a little convex. Gill-rakers 10-+ 15, short, slender sharp- 
pointed, and some with small pointed basal cusps. Gill-filaments 
longer, equal about diameter of pupil. Body naked. Lateral 
line curving down after pectoral and then concurrent with ventral 
profile. Dorsal inserted nearly midway between middle of orbit 
and origin of pectoral, fin highest in middle of its length, though 
soon sloping down behind. Anal inserted about first 3g in 
entire length of fish, of short imbedded spines and first but trifle 
larger than those following. No caudal. Pectoral short and 
pointed. Color bright silvery. Dorsal grayish marginally, 
dusky anteriorly. Length 38% inches. Beesley’s Point. 
I have 2 examples from the above locality taken many years 
ago, though the species has been reported to me from the deep- 
sea pounds off various points along our coast several times. 
Other examples are from Barnegat, Atlantic City and Cape May. 
Lepturus argenteus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 812. 
