117 



Small specimens are common in summer in all the tide- 

 water streams emptying into Chesapeake Bay. 

 Acad. Coll. S. I. 



XXXVI— ELACATIDE. 



ELACATE, Cuv. 



E. canadus. ^ 



Cobia, or Crab-Eater. 



Elongated, nearl}^ cylindrical, tapering gradually to the 

 tail, and flattened above from the first dorsal spine to the 

 snout, which gives it the appearance of the following fish. 

 The large head is flat above, but full at the sides. The 

 fresh fish is above dark olive-brown, which soon assumes a 

 bluish-black color; cheeks and lower jaw silvery, faintly 

 tinted with red; a broad, olive-brown band runs from the 

 eye to the tail, and above and below this is a lighter tinted 

 band; abdomen entirely white. All fins, except the white 

 ventral fins, are olive-brown, and black at their bases. The 

 soft dorsal fin is preceded by eight short, strong and com- 

 pressed sj^ines. Attains a great size, sometimes more than 4 

 feet long. 



Fin-rays:— D. 8.2.30; P. 20; V. 1.5; A. 2.23; C. 21. 

 Gasterosteus canadus, L. Syst. Nat. p. 491. 

 Scomber niger, Bl. tab. 337. 

 Centronotus (jardenii, Lacep. Ill, p. 357. 



— spinosus, Mitch. Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. York, I, 

 p. 490, pi. 3, fig 9. 



Elacate atlantica, Cuv. & Val. VIII, p. 334, pi. 233; 

 DeKay, New York Fauna, Fishes, p. 113, pi. 25, fig. 77. 



— Canada, Holbr. Ichth. S. Car. p. 97, pi. 14, fig. 2. 



— nigra., Guenth. II, p. 375. 



Found in the salt-water of the Southern part of Chesaneake 

 Bav. 



LEPTECHENEIS, Gill. 



L. naucrates. 



■Tailed Eemora. 



Body cylindrical, skin granular, and covered with slime. 

 Head nearly one-sixtli of the total length; flat above, with a 



