524 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



798b. OSMERUS MORDAX ABBOTTI (Cope). 



(COBESSICONTIC SMELT.) 



Head 4f; depth 7; scales 68-16. Eye smaller, 4| in head. Stouter. 

 Maxillary reaching posterior margin of pupil. Landlocked in Cobes- 

 sicontic Lake, Kenuebec County, Maine. (Cope). (Xamed for Dr. 

 Charles Conrad Abbott, an ardent naturalist who has studied the habits 

 of the fishes of Delaware River.) 



Osmerus abbotti, COPE, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. Phila., 1870, 490, Cobessicontic Lake, Maine. 

 Osmerus mordax abboiti, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 294, 1883. 



794. OSMERUS DENTEX, Steindachner. 

 (RAINBOW HERRING.) 



Head 4i; depth 5. D. 10; A. 13; V. 8; scales 66. Eye large, f length 

 of snout. Teeth as in Osmerus eperlanus and O. mordax; maxillary 

 reaching posterior margin of eye, its length 5 times in distance from tip 

 of lower jaw to dorsal. Height of dorsal i length of head; height of 

 anal f ; pectoral shortish, reaching halfway to ventrals. Back pale olive, 

 the scales edged with darker ; sides above lateral line purple, changing 

 below to blue, and then to violet and gold; silvery below with rosy 

 sheen, the belly satin white, fins plain, slightly golden. Coast of Alaska 

 and south on the Pacific Coast to northern China, abundant; a bril- 

 liantly colored fish, the flesh of firmer texture than in the rest of the 

 genus. About Bristol Bay this species forms an important part of the 

 food of the natives, (dentex, toothed.) 



Osmerus denlex, STEINDACHNER, Sitzungsb. Kais. Akad. Wise. Wien, LXI, 1870, 429, Northern 

 China; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 293, 1883; TURNER, Coutr. Nat. Hist. Alaska, 102, 

 plate 10, 1886; NELSON, Kept. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 313, 1887. 



242. HYPOMESUS, Gill. 

 (SURF SMELTS.) 



Mesopus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, 1G8, (pretiosa).* 

 Sypomesus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, 169, (pretiosa}. 



Body rather elongate, moderately compressed, covered with thin scales 

 of moderate size. Head rather pointed. Mouth moderate, the shortish 

 maxillary not extending quite to middle of eye its outline below broadly 

 convex ; lower jaw projecting. Teeth minute, on jaws, vomer, palatines, 

 pterygoids, and tongue. Ventrals inserted directly under middle of dor- 

 sal, midway between eye and base of caudal. Branchiostegals 6 to 7. 

 North Pacific. (I>TTO, below ; //to-oc, middle ; in allusion to the position of 

 the ventrals.) 



a. Scales small, about 70 in lateral line; coloration pale; spawning in surf. PRETIOSUS, 795. 

 aa. Scales moderate, about 58 in lateral line; coloration dark; spawning in ponds. 



OLIDUS, 796. 



* By inadvertence these two synonymous names were applied to this genus by Gill. Jlfcsopns 

 has priority of a page. Its occurrence is however an error of the proofreader as its author 

 'ntended to substitute Hypomesus for it, and did so in every place except in the first use of the 

 word where Mesopus was inadvertently left. A slip of this sort should apparently be treated as a 

 misprint and not considered in nomenclature. 



