546 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



269 Pseudopriacanthus altus (Gill) 

 Short Bigeye 



Priacanthus altus GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 132, 1862, Narragansett 

 Bay; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 545, 1883. 



Pseudopriacanthus altus GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 20, 1879; 

 JORDAN & EIGENMANN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 269, 1887; JORDAN & 

 EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1239, 1896, pi. OXOV, fig. 512, 

 1900; H. M. SMITH, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 100, 1898; op. cit. 1901, 33 r 

 1901, Woods Hole, Mass. 



Body ovate, compressed, its greatest depth one half of the 

 total length without caudal; the caudal peduncle short and 

 stout, its least depth two thirds of its length and equal to post- 

 orbital part of head. Profile little oblique; mouth large, sub- 

 vertical; snout short, one half as long as the eye, which is nearly 

 one half as long as the head; maxillary very broad posteriorly, 

 its width nearly one half its length, extending to beyond the 

 middle of the pupil. Head large, nearly two fifths of total 

 length without caudal; teeth in upper jaw in a narrow villiform 

 band, the outer series enlarged; similar teeth in the lower jaw, 

 but the inner teeth larger than in the upper jaw; preorbital 

 strongly serrate, narrow, one half diameter of pupil; preopercle 

 serrate, the serrae of the lower margin largest; no preopercular 

 spine; opercle and subopercle serrate on their lower margins. 

 Dorsal spines from the first to the fifth graduated, the first twa 

 fifths as long as the fifth, which is as long as the snout and eye 

 combined; the last spine is one half as long as the head; the 

 first soft ray is two thirds as long as the head, and the longest 

 soft ray equals the length of the head without the snout, the 

 last dorsal ray is about as long as the first dorsal spine. The 

 caudal is slightly convex, its middle rays equal to snout and eye 

 combined. Anal spines graduated, the first one third as long as- 

 the head, the third nearly one half as long as the head; the 

 anterior soft rays are produced as in the dorsal, the longest as, 

 long as snout and eye combined. The short and broad pectorals 

 are nearly one half as long as the head. Ventrals large, extend- 

 ing to the third spine of anal fin. Scales all extremely rough,, 

 very strongly ctenoid, smallest on the head, but larger on the 



