THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 359 
Genus ALUTERA Cuvier. 
The File Fishes. 
Alutera schoepfii (Walbaum). 
PLATE 70. 
Orange File Fish. Sun Fish. Unicorn Fish. 
Head 3% ; depth 2% ; D. 37; A. 42; snout 11/,) in head meas- 
ured from tip of mandible; eye 524; interorbital space 47%; 
height of interorbital space 3% ; twelfth dorsal ray 3*/,; twenty- 
first anal ray 324; least depth of caudal peduncle 3% ; pectoral 
31; caudal 27% in head and trunk. Body oblong or rather elon- 
gate, strongly compressed, edges trenchant. Head large, lower 
profile evenly convex. Snout long, with concave profile. Eye 
circular, high, small, and its posterior margin about midway be- 
tween tip of snout and origin of dorsal. Mouth small. Upper 
jaw with a double series of incisor-like teeth. Lower jaw with 
uniserial incisors directed obliquely upward and backward as 
mandible protrudes. Teeth unequal and connivent. A slight de- 
pression at base of upper jaw. Interorbital space high.  Gill- 
opening an oblique slit equai to twice eye-diameter, placed below 
and in advance of same, and its posterior end behind base of 
pectoral. Body covered with minute rough scales, shagreen-like 
and uniform. Dorsal spine small, inserted above anterior margin 
of eye, rough, without barbs. Rayed dorsal at highest obtuse 
angle of upper profile, or midway between origin of dorsal spine 
and base of its last ray. Anal similar and inserted about op- 
posite. Caudal long, convex. Pectoral small, inserted opposite 
anterior margin of pupil. Pelvic bone long, falcate, movable 
under skin, and without terminal spine. Color dirty-gray. 
Length 10% inches. Beesley’s Point. 
Reaches a length of 2 feet and useless as food. I also have ex- 
amples from Squan River. 
Aiutera schepfi Bean, Bull. U. S. F. Com., V, 1887, p. 134.— 
Moore, Bull. U. S. F. Com., XII, 1892, p.. 363. 
Ceratacanthus aurantiacus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 827. 
Alutera cuspicauda Abbott, 1. c. 
