124 SCOMBEROIDS. 



fine and pointed teeth on the vomer, and the two margins of the 

 tongue support minute granular teeth. 



The jaws of the Nomei are provided with a single row of small, 

 recurved, conical teeth, without the addition of laniary or villiform 

 teeth. 



In the dolphin, fCoryphana Hippurus), the intermaxillary and 

 premandibular bones support each an exterior row of small recurved 

 conical teeth, within which there is a broad band of teeth ' en cardes ;' 

 these latter reach further back in the lower than in the upper jaw. 

 There is a rhomboidal patch of similar denticles on the vomer, and a 

 longitudinal band on each palatine bone. The tongue supports a 

 broad plate of villiform teeth, which are likewise present on the 

 origins of the branchial arches. The pharyngeal denticles are more 

 strongly developed. 



A narrow band of incurved teeth * en cardes,' but not very 

 thickly set, extends along each intermaxillary and premandibular 

 bone in the dory {Zeus faber), w^hich has also a small group of 

 similar teeth on each side of the anterior part of the vomer, but none 

 on the palatines or tongue. The branchial arches are furnished with 

 tubercles, and these, together with the small pharyngeal bones, are 

 beset with the same kind of teeth as those on the vomer and jaws. 

 The boar-fish {Capros Aper), the type of an allied genus, has a 

 dentition similar to that of the dory ; the maxillary and vomerine 

 denticles are somewhat finer and are placed deeper within the jaws, 

 and those of the pharyngeal bones and branchial arches are villiform. 

 The jaws of the Equula ensifera are provided with a narrow band 

 of flexible setiform teeth j in some other species, as the Equula dentex, 

 two of the anterior teeth in both jaws are more developed than the 

 rest, and are pointed and incurved. 



In the genus Alepisaurus, the mouth is as w^ell armed as in the 

 hair-tail, or scabbard-fish, and the teeth present a similar inequality 

 of size, and the compressed, pointed, lancet-shaped figure, so common 

 in the Scomberoid family of fishes. The margin of each long inter- 

 maxillary bone is serrated by a row of small compressed teeth, the 

 anterior being rather larger than the hinder ones, and the first 

 tooth projecting forwards. The anterior ]3art of the palatine bones is 



