COPEIA 59 



from white men that it is excellent eating, after the 

 removal of its electric hide. 



Herbert Lang, 

 New York, N. Y. 



LONG ISLAND FISHES NOTED BY 

 MR. J. G. RAYNOR 



Elops saurus. The Big-eyed Herring or Ten- 

 Pounder, is of particular interest to students of evo- 

 lution and of the past life of the earth, because it is 

 what is often called "a living fossil," that is, a type 

 which has come down from remote ages with very 

 little change in structure. This fish is in fact a little 

 modified representative of a group which flourished 

 far back in the Cretaceous Period of the earth's his- 

 tory. It is also one of the most primitive of all the 

 teeming hosts of Teleost fishes. Its nearest relatives 

 among existing fishes are the Tarpon (Megalops) 

 and the Ladyfish (Albula). 



The American Museum of Natural History has 

 recently received from Mr. John G. Raynor a speci- 

 men of this fish taken at Westhampton Beach, Long 

 Island, about October 20, 1914. Others were taken 

 at about the same time. The occurrence of this south- 

 ern form on Long Island is sufficiently infrequent to 

 be worthy of record ; it is said to be common at Woods 

 Hole, Mass., in October.* 



Tetrapterus imperator. Mr. Raynor reports a 

 Spearfish taken at Westhampton in the last of June 

 or first part of July, 1890. He verified its identifi- 

 cation by examining a figure of the species as well 

 as a mounted Sailfish and a Swordfish model at the 

 museum ; and later submitted a very fair photograph 

 of the fish, taken at the time of capture. To judge 

 from the photograph it was eleven or twelve feet in 

 total length. This fish apparently belongs with the 

 Spearfish incursion reported from Woods Hole 1885 



* Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish. Vol. 31, pt. 



