614 NEW YORK STATE MUSE/UM 



Ahitera schoepfli Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 3, 1879; Bean, 

 Bull. Am. Iklus. Nat. Hist. IX, 369, 1897'; H. M. Smith, Bull. U. S. 

 F. C. 1897, 104, 1898; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 1718. 1S9S, pi. COLX, fis. 636, 1900; Bean, 52d Ann. Rep. N. Y. 

 State Mus. 107, 1900. 



Body obloDg, rather elongate, narrowed posteriorly; the great- 

 est depth four ninths or nearly one half of total length without 

 caudal; least depth of caudal peduncle nearly one third length of 

 head. Profile of head very oblique; space between dorsals al- 

 most horizontal; ventral outline convex. Head short, its length 

 contained three and one fourth times in total without caudal; 

 the gill opening oblique, two and one half times as long as the 

 eye; eye small, one fifth as long as the head; twice its own diam- 

 eter from top of head, and. placed far back over the posterior part 

 of the gill opening; snout one fourth of total length without cau- 

 dal; mouth very small, the lower jaw prominent. Dorsal spine 

 slender, varying greatly in length, |)laced over the eye. Inter- 

 space between the dorsals as long as the head. Base of second 

 dorsal one third of total length without caudal; the longest dor 

 sal ray equals one third length of dorsal base; the outline of the 

 fin greatly convex. Caudal moderately long in adult, rounded 

 behind, much produced in young; the middle rays in adult as 

 long as the snout. Anal similar to soft dorsal, but extending 

 farther back, its base somewhat longer than dorsal base, it;^ 

 longest rays equal to longest of dorsal. Pectoral short, one 

 third as long as the head. Scales minute, shagreenlike, uniform 

 over the body. D. I, 36; A. 38. 



Coloration nearly uniform dirty olive gray, varying to orange 

 yellow, often, specially when young, mottled above with darker 

 liliiish (.] (lull orange; caudal sometimes dusky, edged with white, 

 usually dull yellowish in the adult. Length 24 inches. 



TIk- orange fileflsh is found from Cape Cod to the Gulf of 

 M<'xi.n, the young usually abundant every summer on the south 

 sIk.ic of Long Island and in the bays. 



The ycuiig ;ii(^ i:ither common in Gravesend bay in August, 

 S<-pl.iiil.rr, Ooiober, and sometimes as late as November. Adults 

 are rarely seen. The species will not survive the winter except 



