FAMILY SCIENID&. 71 
GENUS OTOLITHUS. Cuvier. 
Two stout canine teeth in the upper jaw, and occasionally in the lower. Two small pores 
on the lower jaw, or entirely wanting. Two dorsal fins. Atr-bladder bifid in front. Anal 
spines feeble or obsolete. Body elongated. 
THE WEAK-FISH. 
OTOLITHUS REGALIS. 
PLATE VIIL. FIG 24. 
Johnnius regalis. Scun. Scuteeg und Scuppaug, Scuaprr, |.c. p. 169. 
Roccus comes. Mircniui, Report in part on the Fishes of N. Y. 1814, p. 26. 
Weak-fish, Labrus squeteague. Ip. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 396, pl. 2, fig. 6. 
LT’ Otolithe royal, O. regalis. Cuv. et Vax. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 5, p. 67. 
Sciena (Otolithus) regalis. Ricuarpson, Fauna Bor. Am. Fishes, p. 63. 
O. regalis, Squeteague, Weak-fish. Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts, p, 33. 
Characteristics. Bluish above, varied with dusky. Ventrals and anal orange. Ventrals with 
five branched rays. Length one to two feet. 
Description. Body elongate, compressed. Head slightly arched over the eyes. Scales 
moderate, oval, transparent, minutely striate and denticulate, covering the gill-covers and 
summit of the head to the end of the nose. The lateral line curved slightly, but not concur- 
rent with the back; it may be traced to the tips of the caudal rays. Nostrils double, placed 
in a triangular cavity anterior to the eye ; the one nearest the orbit vertically oblong, the other 
round and subtubular. Eyes large, the lower jaw longest, furnished with a row of distant 
acute subequal teeth, and in front with two or three rows of smaller ones. Similar but 
smaller ones above in the intermaxillaries, and from one to three long fang-like teeth in front 
of the upper jaw. Ranges of minute teeth on the pharyngeals, to which is attached an orbi- 
cular process, which is festooned on its margin. Branchial rays seven: the first branchial 
arch with long flat processes, strongly dentate on their inner edges; the others with short 
alternate tubercles. Opercle with two obsolete flattened points, scarcely discernible through 
the membrane. Preopercle with a minutely crenate membranous margin. 
Dorsal fins two ; the first triangular longer than high, of eight simple feebly spinous rays, 
of which the first is shorter than the second; the third longest. Equidistant between this and 
the succeeding fin, is a short feeble isolated spine. The second dorsal fin is long and sube- 
qual; the first ray is short, and so closely in contact with the next as to be separated with 
difficulty. The third is longest; and from this, the rays insensibly diminish to its termination 
somewhat beyond the anal. The pectoral fins extend as far as the middle of the first dorsal, 
and, with the exception of the first, which is simple, contain seventeen branched rays. Ven- 
tral fin stout, with one simple and five very ramose rays. The anal fin short; the third ray 
