246 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
GENUS SCOPELUS. Cuvier. 
Body long and slender. Mouth and gills excessively cleft. Branchial rays nine and ten. 
Small teeth in both jaws ; the edge of the upper jaw formed entirely by the intermasilla- 
ries. Tongue and palate smooth. The first dorsal over the space between the ventral and 
anal. The adipose fin rudimentary. 
THE ARGENTINE. 
ScoPELUS HUMBOLDT! ? 
PLATE XXXVIII. FIG. 121. 
Argentina sphyrena. PENNANT, British Zoology, Vol. 3, p. 432, pl. 76. 
Scopelus humboldti. Cuvier, R. A. Ed. Angl. Vol. 10, p. 432. 
The Argentine, S.id. CiarKe, Lond. Mag. Nat. Hist. No. 13, 1838. 
The Argentine, S.id. STorer, Report on the Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 110. 
Characteristics. Several series of brilliant silvery points along the sides of the body and tail. 
Length two inches. 
Description. Body oblong, much compressed. Lateral line almost imperceptible, nearly 
straight, commencing at the upper third of the opercle. Mouth widely cleft, with minute 
teeth in both jaws. Eyes large, 0°2 in diameter. 
Color. 'The back, to the depth of about a line, green. Sides and gill-covers silvery. A 
series of circular metallic spots along the belly, from before the pectorals to the vent. Above 
these, another row; and behind the vent another, consisting of similar but smaller dots 
extending to the base of the caudal fin. Ivides silvery. 
Length, 2°1; of the head, 0°3, 
Einzays,"D: 10-——« Pol7s V.. 85. A. lo3 1.19" 
But one living specimen has, as far as I am acquainted, been met with on our shores. It 
occurred at Nahant on the coast of Massachusetts, and is noticed by Dr. Storer, whose de- 
scription is copied. Dr. Storer is silent respecting the spots on the opercle, and the slight 
ridge between the dorsal and base of the caudal, which represents the adipose fin in the 
European species. In this latter species, also, there are stated to be four series of metallic 
colored spots. The American species is, in all probability, distinct from that of the Medi- 
terranean, 
