Percomorphi 483 
Trichiurus lepturus is rather common on our Atlantic coast. 
The names hairfish and silver-eel, among others, are often given 
to it. Trichiurus japonicus, a very similar species, is common 
ax 
Fic. 378.—Cutlass-fish, Trichiurus lepturus Linneus. St. Augustine, Fla. 
in Japan, and other species inhabit the tropical seas. Tri- 
chiurichthys, a fossil genus with well-developed scales, precedes 
Trichiurus in the Miocene. 
The Palzorhynchide.—The extinct family of Palcorhynchide 
is found from the Eocene to the Oligocene. It contains very 
Fic. 379.—Palworhynchus glarisianus Blainville. Oligocene. (After Woodward.) 
long and slender fishes, with long jaws and small teeth, the 
dorsal fin long and continuous. The species resembles the 
Escolar on the one hand and the sailfishes on the other, and 
they may prove to be ancestral to the Istiophoride. Hemi- 
rhynchus deshayesi with the upper jaw twice as long as the 
lower, sword-like, occurs in the Eocene at Paris; Palgorhynchum 
glarisianum, with the jaws both elongate, the lower longest, is 
in the Oligocene of Glarus. Several other species of both genera 
arestecordeds ss 
The Sailfishes: Istiophoride.—Remotely allied to the cutlass- 
fishes and still nearer to the Palgorhynchide is the family of 
sailfishes, Istiophoride, having the upper jaw prolonged into 
