70 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



DACTYLOPTERUS VOLITANS, Cuv. 

 The Sea-Swallow. 



(PLATE VI. FIG. 5.) 



Trigla volitans, Flying Gurnard, L., SHAW'S Gen. Zool., IT. p. 622, pi. 91. 



Morcielago, PARRA, p. 25, pi. 14. 



Polynemus sex-raduUus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., I. pi. 4, fig. 10. 



" " MITCHILL, Supp. Amer. Month. Mag., 11. p. 323 (?). 



Le Dactylopt&re commun, Dactylopterus volitans, Cov. et VAL., iv. p. 117. 

 Dactylopterus volitans, GRIFFITH'S CUT., x. p. 138. 



RICH., Fauna Boreal. Americ., HI. p. 40. 



WILSON, Encycl. Brit., art. Ichthyology, p. 173. 



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Sea-Swallow, DEKAY, Report, p. 49, pi. 17, fig. 46. 

 LINSLEY, Cat. of Fishes of Conn. 

 STORER, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, n. p. 304. 

 STORER, Synopsis, p. 52. 



Bat-fish, SCHOMBURGK, Hist, of Barbados, p. 667. 



Color. The specimen now described is of a slate-color above, with indistinct 

 darker blotches ; top of head darker than back ; upper jaw yellowish-white, with 

 several dark- brown spots beneath the eyes. Abdomen yellow. Dorsal fin white, 

 banded with brown ; pectorals dull brown, irregularly spotted with darker blotches, 

 lighter beneath, white at their inferior base ; caudal yellowish, transversely banded 

 with black. 



My specimen, however, having been preserved in spirits, and its colors consequently 

 being in a great measure destroyed, I shall avail myself of this portion of Dr. Dekay's 

 description: "Light brown above, (darker on the summit of head,) with irregular darker 

 spots. Sides silvery with flesh-color, which latter is predominant beneath. Dorsals gray, 

 with brown spots on the membrane of the first, and the rays of the second annulated 

 alternately with brown and lighter. The posterior pectorals blackish, with bluish 

 iridescent spots ; the anterior dark brown varied with black. Ventrals and anal flesh- 

 colored. Caudal light brown, with irregular brownish bands." 



Description. Body cylindrical anterior to vent ; abdomen flattened posterior to vent ; 

 sides compressed at posterior extremities. Head flattened above. Back and sides 

 covered with rows of fixed raised scales ; the six or eight rows upon the sides are most 

 elevated, sharp with minutely denticulated edges, and their summit with more marked 

 denticulations. There are fifteen rows of scales, passing longitudinally on the sides, 

 between the origin of the second dorsal and the abdomen. Posterior to the second 

 dorsal, these rows are less marked than anterior to it ; the rows back of the head and 

 beneath the pectorals are much more numerous than posteriorly ; these gradually ap- 

 proximate, and, as it were running into each other, are for the most part lost, so that at 

 the termination of the second dorsal fin there remain but about twelve rows, and at 



