PISHES OF NEW YORK 435 



row, free; teeth minute, on jaws, tongue, vomer, and palatines; 

 gill rakers long and slender; spines of fins usually weak, more or 

 less filamentous in the young; free anal spines immovable, some- 

 times obsolete in the adult; soft fins falcate, much elevated; no 

 finlets; head naked; scales minute; lateral line wholly unarmed. 

 Coloration silvery. Tropical seas. Notwithstanding its extra- 

 ordinary form, this genus differs in no important regard from 



Ca r a n x . 



218 Selene vomer (Linnaeus) 



LooMown; Moonfish 



Zeus vomer LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. ed* X, I, 266, 1758, America. 



Argyreiosus vomer LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 566, 1803; DE KAY, N. Y. 



Fauna, Fishes, 124, pi. 75, fig. 238, 1842; GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. 



Mus. II, 458, 1860; GILL,- Proe. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 437, 1862; BEAN, 



19th Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. 256, 1890. 



Argyriosus vomer GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 16, 1879. 

 Selene argentea LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 560, pi. 9, fig. 2, 1803, (adult), 

 Zeus capillaris MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 383, pi. II, fig. 2, 



1815, (young), New York. 

 Zeus rostratus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 384, pi. II, fig. l r 



1815, (young), New York. 

 Zeus geometricus MITCHILL, AIJ. Month. Mag. II, 245, Feb. 1818, (adult), 



New York. 

 Aryyreiosus capillaris DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 125, pi. 27, fig. 82, 1&42, 



New York. 

 Selene vomer CUVIEB & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 177, 1833; 



BREVOORT, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. V, 68, -pi. 4, 1853; JORDAN & 



GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 439, 1883; JORDAN & EVERMANN, 



Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 936, 1896, pi. CXLIV, fig. 393, (young), pi. 



CXLV, fig. 393#, adult, 1900; BEAN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 363, 



1897, 52d Ann. Kept. N. Y. State Mus. 103, 1900; SMITH, Bull. U. S, 



F. C. XVII, 98, 1898. 

 Selene gallus BEAN, Bull. U. S. F. C. VII, 139, 1888. 



The depth of the body is contained one and one half times in 

 the length; while the length of the head is contained three times 

 in the length of the body. Diameter &f eye, length of opercle, 

 and distance from eye to profile about equal; eye twice in maxil- 

 lary, two and one half in preorbital; mandibles very deep, the 

 dentary bones thin, approximate ; one or two of the dorsal spines 

 greatly elongate and filamentous in the young, short in the 

 adult; ventrals variable in length, usually as long as the eye 

 in the adult, variously elongate in partly grown specimens; the 



