HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 69 



The pectoral fins are falciform, and arise directly back of the angle of the operculum. 



The ventral fins are quite small. 



The anal fin arises opposite the middle of the second dorsal, and is of the same length 

 as that fin ; eight or nine finlets are posterior to it, similar in their appearance to those 

 back of the second dorsal fin. 



The caudal fin is large and lunated. At its base is a lateral carina, upon which the 

 lateral line terminates ; and on each side of this are two smaller carina? running the en- 

 tire length of the fleshy portion of the tail. 



Length, about twenty inches. 



The fin rays are as follows : — D. 18-17 + VIII. P. 20. V. 4. A. 18+ S 8 VIII. C.26. 



Remarks. This species, which is found on the coast of South America, and which 

 Dekay speaks of as occurring sparingly in the waters of New York, must be exceedingly 

 rare on the shores of Massachusetts. I have known but five specimens to be taken 

 here; one of these was captured at Lynn, July 24th, 1841, in a seine, in company 

 with several blue-fish, and the others were taken at Provincetown, August, 1847. The 

 former measured twenty-one inches in length, the latter but fifteen inches. It roams 

 even farther north than Massachusetts, Captain Atwood having captured a specimen at 

 Mohegan, on the coast of Maine. 



Maine, Captain Atwood. Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Linsley, Ayres. 

 New York, Mitchill, Dekay. South America, Cuvier. 



GENUS V. TRICHIURUS, Lin. 



Head pointed ; body without scales, elongated, compressed, thin, ribbon-shaped. No 

 ventral fins, nor scales instead ; no anal fin ; a single continuous dorsal fin ; tail without 

 rays, ending in a single elongated hair-like filament, from which the generic name is 

 derived. A single row of compressed, cutting, and pointed teeth. Branchiostegous 

 rays, seven. 



Trichiurus lepturus, Lin. 



The Silvery Hair-tail. 



(Plate XII. Fig. 1.) 



Trichiurus lepturus, Lin., Syst. Nat., p. 409. 



Gymnogaster argenteus compressus, cauda attenuata impinna, Browne, Jamaica, p. 444, pi. 45, fig. 4. 



Trichiurus lepturus, Bloch, Ichth., v. p. 55, pi. 158. 



Trichiurus argenteus, Silver Trichiure, Shaw, Gen. Zool., iv. p. 1, pt. 90, fig. 12. 



Trichiurus lepturus, Stback's Plates, xx. fig. 1. 



Trichiurus argenteus, Silvery Hair-tail, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., I. p. 364. 



Le Trichiure de VAtlantique (Trichiurus lepturus, Lin.), Ccv. et Val., viii. p. 237. 



