342 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
tion and proved excellent food. The cause of mortality was un- 
known, but Professor Baird was of the opinion that concussion 
caused by terrific storms, which raged off the banks, might prob- 
ably account for it. 
Sub-Order PHARYNGOGNATHI. 
The Labroid Fishes. 
Tropical fishes, mostly large, with bright colors and strong 
dentition. 
Key to the families. 
a. Lower pharyngeals T-shaped or Y-shaped, their teeth conical or tuber- 
cular; teeth usually not confluent; carnivorous, and sexes often dissimilar. 
LABRIDAY 
aa. Lower pharyngeals spatulate or basin-shaped, their teeth broadest trans- 
versely and truncate, arranged in mosaic; teeth in jaws more or less 
perfectly confluent, forming a sort of beak; herbivorous, and sexes col- 
ored alike. ; SCARIDAS 
Family LABRIDZ. 
The Wrasse Fishes. 
Body oblong or elongate. Mouth moderate, terminal. Pre- 
maxillaries protractile. Maxillaries without supplemental bone, 
slipping under membranaceous edge of preorbital. Anterior 
teeth in jaws usually very strong and canine-teeth. Teeth of 
jaws separate or soldered together at base, not forming a con- 
tinuous plate. No teeth on vomer or palatines. Lips thick, 
longitudinally plicate. Nostrils round, with 2 openings on each 
side. Gill-membranes somewhat connected, sometimes joined to 
narrow isthmus. Gills 3%, a slit behind last arch small or obso- 
lete. Pseudobranchiz well developed. Branchiostegals 5 or 6. 
Lower pharyngeals completely united into 1 bone, without median 
suture, this bone T-shaped or Y-shaped, its teeth conical or 
tubercular. Air-vessel present. No pyloric cceca. Body covered 
with cycloid scales. Lateral line well developed, continuous or 
interrupted, often angularly bent. Dorsal fin continuous, spinous 
