THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 355 
Dr. Abbott records this fish from an example taken in Dela- 
ware Bay said to be in the collection of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia. At present I am unable to locate it, 
and have no record of it on the Museum catalogues. Of course 
its place in our fauna is that of a tropical straggler. It is a large 
showy fish. 
Holacanthus ciliaris Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 811. 
Family HARPURID-. 
The Surgeon Fishes. 
Body oblong, compressed and usually elevated. Eye lateral, 
high up. Preorbital very narrow and deep. Mouth small, low. 
Each jaw with a single series of narrow incisor-like teeth. 
Vomer and palatines toothless. Premaxillaries somewhat moy- 
able, but not protractile. Maxillary short, closely united with 
premaxillaries. Nostrils double. Gill-membranes attached to 
isthmus, openings thus restricted to sides. Gills 4, a slit behind 
fourth. Gill-rakers obsolete. Pseudobranchie large. Pelvic 
bones long, narrow, curved, closely connected, evident through 
skin as in Balistide. Pyloric cceca rather few. Air-vessel large. 
Intestinal canal long. Vertebre 9 + 13 = 22. Posterior sub- 
orbital bones in close contact with preopercle. Post-temporal 
immovably united with skull, apparently simple, but really trifur- 
cate with interspaces filled in with bone, foramen not passing 
through it. Interneural bones with transversely expanded 
buckler-like subcutaneous plates which intervene between spaces 
and limit their motion forwards. Epipleurals developed from 
ribs. Body covered with very small scales. Lateral line continu- 
ous. ‘Tail armed with 1 or more spines or bony plates. A single 
dorsal fin with strong spines, and spinous portion shorter than 
rayed portion. Anal.similar to rayed dorsal. Pectorals moder- 
ate. Ventrals present, thoracic, mostly I, 5. 
Herbivorous fishes of the tropical seas. They undergo changes 
with age as in the Chetodontide. One species straying to our 
shores. 
