FISHES OP NEW YORK 177 



of 1879 Dr Hermes received a number of small, sea eels taken in 



the vicinity of Havre. These eels ate greedily and grew rapidly. 



Only one was tardy in its development, so that it could easily 



be distinguished from the rest. This one died June 20, 1880, 



and was examined the same day. It proved to be a sexually 



mature male and served to clear up some very doubtful problems 



in the reproduction of the species, as well as its ally, the common 



eel. 



Order isospondyli 



Isospondylous Fishes 



Family' ELOFiDAEi 

 Tarpons 

 Genus tarpon Jordan & Evermann 

 Body oblong, compressed, covered with very large, thick, 

 silvery, cycloid scales; belly narrow, but not carinated, its edge 

 with ordinary scales; mouth large, oblique, the lower jaw prom- 

 inent, maxillary broad, extending beyond the eye; villiform teeth 

 on jaws, vomer, palatines, tongue, sphenoid, and pterygoid bones; 

 eye very large, with an adipose eyelid; lateral line nearly 

 straight, its tubes radiating widely over the surface of the 

 scales; branchiostegals 23; pseudobranchiae wanting; gill rakers 

 long and slender; dorsal fin short and high, inserted behind the 

 ventrals (over the ventrals in Me g a 1 o p s), its last ray elon- 

 gate and filamentous as in Megalops, Dor o soma, and 

 O p i s t h o n e m a ; anal fin much longer than dorsal, falcate, 

 its last ray produced; caudal widely forked; pectorals and 

 ventrals rather long; anal with a sheath of scales; dorsal naked; 

 caudal more or less scaly; a collar of large scales at the nape. 

 Vertebrae about 57 (28+29). Size very large, the largest of the 

 herringlike fishes. '^ (After Jordan and Evermann) 



1(;3 Tarpon atlanticus (Cuv. & Val.) 



Tarpuia; Tarpon; Grande EeailU; Silver King 



Megalops atlainic.s Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. XIX, 39S, 



1846. (;u;'djiluui)e 

 Megalops elor(,u !::< ( ibakd, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. PUila. 224. 1858, Long Island. 

 Megalops fZ/rrnxM/rs cT-ntkee, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. VII, 472, 1868; Jordan 

 & Gilbert. Br 11. 16. U. S. Nat. Mus. 262, 1883; Goode. Fislv & Fish. 

 Ind. U. S. 1. <ilO, pi. 217 B, 1884; American Fishes, 406, fig. 1888. 



