542 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Color. Dusky olive brown, somewhat clouded; sides with a 

 few irregular whitish spots; young spotted with brownish. 



South Atlantic coast, U. S., straying northward to coast of 

 Khode Island. The species is frequently taken in moderately 

 deep water off Charleston, Pensacola and Key West. Mitchill 

 clescribed it from the Straits of Bahama. The common name 

 is given in allusion to the soapy feeling of the skin. The fish is 

 small and has no value for food. Nothing is recorded of its 



habits. 



Family lobotudaej 



Triple-tails 



Genus lobotes Cuvier 



Body oblong, compressed, and elevated, covered with moder- 



-ate-sized, weakly ctenoid scales; profile of head concave, the 



snout prominent; mouth moderate, oblique, with thick lips; 



upper jaw very protractile; lower jaw the longer; maxillary 



without supplemental bone; jaws with narrow bands of villi- 



form teeth, in front of which is a row of larger conical teeth 



-directed backward; no teeth on vomer or palatines; preorbital 



narrower than eye; preopercle strongly serrate. Branchi- 



ostegals six. Dorsal fin continuous, with 12 spines which may 



be depressed in a shallow groove; soft rays of dorsal and anal 



fins elevated; anal spines graduated; bases of soft dorsal and 



4\nal thickened and scaly; caudal rounded. Air bladder present. 



Pyloric caeca three. 



2()7 Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch) 



Flasher; Triple-tail 



JlolDi-dilrns siuiinnitciifiis Bloch, Ichthyol. pi. 243, 1790, Surinam. 



BodUiims iriunts Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 418, pi. Ill, 

 lig. 10, 1815, Powles Hook, N. J. 



J.iihdtrs atirtonim Ul-nther. Cat. F'sli. Brit. Mus. I, 338, 1859. 



J.dhotrs siirintniiciisin Cvtiku & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 319, 1830; 

 De Kav. N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 88, pi. 18, fig. 40, 1842, New York; 

 Hoi.itKooK. Ichlh. S. C. ed. 1,159. pi. 23, fig. 2, 1856; Jordan & Gilbert, 

 liiill. 1<5. V. S. Nat. Mus. 555, 1883; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, 

 r. S. Nat. Mus. 1235, 189(5, pi. CXCIY. fig. 510, 1900; H. M. Smith, 

 Hull. II. S. F. C. 1897. 100. 1898; Sherwood & Edwards, Bull. U. S. F. 

 '. I'.toi, i:s. I'.MM, NMi-ragansett Bay. 



Tlif ImmIv is (ihlouji. deep, its depth four ninths of its length 

 i(li(MU the <iuidal; least depth of caudal peduncle three tenths 



