440 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [98] 



faint broad cross-bars, the anterior from base of first dorsal to ventrals, 

 the next from middle of soft dorsal to anal ; tip of snout and chin black; 

 an oblique bar below eye; spinous dorsal, pectoral, and ventral black, 

 edged with white ; edges of caudal yellowish ; anal with brown poiuts 

 anteriorly. Head 3f to 3i in total length ; depth the same. D. X-I, 3? 



or 38; A. 11,7; lat.l. 50.] (Steindachner.) Pulcuek, ill. 



aa. Dorsal rays XIV or XV-I, 53; about twelve of the anterior iuterueurals wedged 

 in between the occiput and the neural spine of the third vertebra ; pro- 

 file almost vertical, the distance from tip of snout to first dorsal spine 

 much less than depth of body. {Eques.) 

 d. Body deepest below first dorsal spine, rapidly tapering to the narrow caudal 

 peduncle ; profile very steep, little convex ; eye little longer than snout, 

 about 4 in head ; preorbital broad, nearly as wide as eye ; mouth small, 

 slightly oblique ; maxillary reaching to below anterior fourth of eye ; 

 teeth all villiform in broad bands, the outer scarcely enlarged ; preopercle 

 with a fringed membranous border ; gill-rakers very short and slender, 

 6+9; anterior dorsal spines much elongate, If in body ; soft rays low, 

 the membranes scaled to the tips ; anal small ; its second spine 3 in head; 

 ventrals 1^ in head ; pectorals scarcely shorter ; color, light yellowish; a 

 narrow brownish baud from the corner of the mouth up across the mid- 

 dle of the eve, and meeting its fellow on top of head ; another broader 

 band edged with a narrow white line on each side from the nape down 

 • and back over opercle, meeting its fellow between the ventral fins and 

 extending to the tips of their outer rays ; a third and still broader band, 

 also bordered by white, extending from the tips of the dorsal spines to 

 their base, then downward and backward to tbe tips of the middle cau- 

 dal rays ; body below this band silvery white ; above it somewhat darker. 

 Head 4 in length; depth 2f. D. XIV to XVI-I, 53; A. II, 5; scales 

 irregular, with smaller ones intermixed Lanceolatus, 112. 



109. EQUES ACUMINATUS. 



a. Var. acuminatum. 



Grammistes acuminatus Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 184, 1801. 



Eques a< uminatus Castelnau, Auim. Nouv. on Rares de l'Ame'r. du Sud, 10, 1855. Giin- 

 ther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., ii, 280, 1860 (Cuba). Poey, Memorias, ii, 370, 1861 

 (Cuba); Synopsis, 325, 1868 (Cuba). Cope, Ichthyol. Lesser Antilles, 471, 1870 

 (St. Croix). Poey, Enurneratio, 49, 1875 (Cuba). Jordan, Cat. Fish. North 

 America, 94, 18;- ; 5 (name only). 



Pareques acuminatus Goode, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., v, 50, 1876 (Bermudas). Bean, In- 

 ternat. Fish. Exhib. Berlin, 54, 1883 (Key Vest ). 



Eques lineatus Cuv. &. Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 1830, 169 (Brazil). 



7*. Var. umhrosus. 



Scicena acuminata Jordan & Gilbert, Syn. Fish. North Am., 573, 1883 (Pensacola). 

 Eques acuminatus umhrosus Jordan & Eigenmann, var. nov. (Charleston; Pensacola). 



Habitat. — West Indian fauna, South Carolina to Brazil ; var. umhrosus 

 on the United States coast. 



This species is not uncommon in the West Indies. In several respects 

 it differs widely from the type of the genus Eques, in all these respects 

 approaching the type of tbe genus Scicena. It however seems impos- 

 sible to regard Pareques as a genus distinct from Eques, as in several 



