410 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Body elongate, covered with thin, small, silvery scales. Dorsal fin 

 slightly behind ventrals, its last rays short, the fin depressible into a 

 sheath of scales ; anal fin smaller, similarly depressible ; pectorals and 

 ventrals moderate, each with a long accessory scale. Opercular bones 

 thin, with expanded, membranaceous borders; a scaly occipital collar. 

 Lateral line straight, its tubes simple. Pseudobranchise present, large. 

 Vertebrae 43 -f- 29 = 72. Large fishes of the open seas, remarkable for the 

 development of scaly sheaths. The young are ribbon-shaped and 

 elongate, passing through a series of changes like those seen in Albula. 

 (/o^, name of some sea fish; a swordfish or sturgeon; from t-Aaiu/w, to 

 drive or move.) 



671. ELOPS SAURUS, Linnams. 



(TEN- POUNDER ; JOHN-MARIGGLE ; BONY-FISH; BIG-EYED HERRING; MATAJOELO REAL; CHIRO; 



LISA FRANCESA.) 



Head 4i ; depth 5 to 6; eye large, 4 to 5. D. 20; A. 13; V. 15 ; B. 30; 

 scales 12-120-13. Gular plate 3 to 4 times as long as broad. Length 3 

 feet. Tropical seas ; abundant and very widely distributed. Common in 

 America, north to Carolina and the Gulf of California ; straying on the 

 Atlantic Coast to Long Island, (saurus, oavpoq, lizard.) 



Elops saurus, LINN^US, Syst. Nat., Ed. xn, 518, 1766, Carolina ; GUNTHER, Cat., vu, 470, 1868; 



JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 261, 1883, and of most authors. 

 Argentina Carolina, LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. xn, 519, 1766, Carolina. 

 Argentina machnata, FORSKAL, Descr. Anini., 68, 1775, Djidda, Arabia. 

 Mngilomorus anna-carolina, LACPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 398, 1803, South Carolina. 

 Elogsinermis, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y., i, 1815, 445, New York. 

 Elops capensis, SMITH, Zob'l. S. Africa, 1845, pi. 7, Cape of Good Hope. 

 Elops purpurascens, RICHARDSON, Ichth. China, 311, 1846, China. 



Family LVII. ALBULID^E. 



(THE LADY-FISHES.) 



Body rather elongate, little compressed, covered with rather small, 

 brilliantly silvery scales ; head naked. Snout conic, subquadrangular, 

 shaped like the snout of a pig, and overlapping the small, inferior, hori- 

 zontal mouth. Maxillary rather strong, short, with a distinct supple- 

 mental bone, slipping under the membranous edge of the very broad 

 preorbital; premaxillaries short, not protractile. Lateral margin of 

 upper jaw formed by the maxillaries ; both jaws, vomer, and palatines 

 with bands of viliiform teeth ; broad patches of coarse, blunt, paved 

 teeth on the tongue behind and on the sphenoid and pterygoid bones. 

 Eye large, median in head, with a bony ridge above it, and almost covered 

 with an annular adipose eyelid. Opercle moderate, firm ; preopercle with 

 a broad, flat, membranaceous edge, which extends backward over the 

 base of the opercle. Pseudobranchiae present. Gill rakers short, tubercle- 

 like. Gill membranes entirely separate, free from the isthmus; branchi- 

 ostegals about 14 ; a fold of skin across gill membranes anteriorly, its 

 posterior free edge crenate ; no gular plate. Lateral line present. Belly 

 not carinate, flattish, covered with ordinary scales. Dorsal fin moderate, 

 in front of ventrals, its membranes scaly ; no adipose fin ; anal very small ; 

 caudal widely forked Pyloric coeca numerous. Parietal bones meeting 



