328 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
Family SCIZNIDE. 
The Croakers. 
Body compressed, more or less elongate. Head prominent. 
Mouth small or large. Teeth in one or more series, outer some- 
times enlarged. Canines often present. No incisor or molar 
teeth. No teeth on vomer, palatines, pterygoids or tongue. Max- 
illary without supplemental bone, slipping under free edge of 
preorbital, which is usually broad. Premaxillaries protractile, 
but not very freely movable. Chin usually with pores, sometimes 
with barbels. Nostrils double. Preopercle serrate or not. 
Opercle usually ending in 2 flat points. Gill-membranes separate, 
free from isthmus. Gills 4, a slit behind fourth. Gill-rakers 
present. Pseudobranchiz usually large and present. Branchi- 
ostegals 7. Lower pharyngeals separate or united, often en- 
larged, teeth conic or molar. Air-vessel usually large, com- 
plicated, or sometimes wanting. Ejar-bones or otoliths very large. 
Suborbital bones without a backward projecting stay. Pyloric 
cceca usually rather few. Body covered with rather thin scales, 
usually more or less ctenoid. Head covered with scales, bones of 
skull cavernous, muciferous system highly developed, and when 
flesh is removed surface of skull very uneven. Lateral line con- 
tinuous, usually more or less concurrent with back and extending 
on caudal fin. Dorsal fin deeply notched or divided into 2 fins, 
rayed fin longer and spines depressible into a more or less perfect 
groove. Anal with I or II spines, never more than IT. Caudal 
usually not forked. Pectorals normal. Ventrals I, 5, thoracic, 
below or behind pectorals. 
Fishes of sandy-shores in all warm seas, some few in fresh- 
water, but none in deep water or among rocks. They often reach 
a large size and are valued as food. Their habits are carnivorous, 
and some are of interest as game fishes. Most species make a 
peculiar noise, called croaking, drumming, grunting or snoring, 
which sound is supposed to be caused by forcing air from the air- 
vessel into one of the lateral horns. 
