526 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



aa. Scales nearly or quite smooth. 



b. Body rather deep, the depth 5% in length; scales 40 to 45; eye shorter than snout. 



stALis, 798. 



bb. Body rather slender, the depth about 7 in length; scales about 51; eye longer than 

 snout. STRIATA, 799. 



797. ARGENTINA SILUS, Ascanius. 



Head 4i; depth 51; eye 2. B. 6; D. 12; A. 13; V. 14; scales 

 3-60-4 (66, Giinther). Body compressed. Head not quite twice as long 

 as deep ; snout nearly 3| in head. Insertion of dorsal midway between 

 snout and adipose fin; ventrals under last ray of dorsal. Scales very 

 large, cycloid, covered with spinules, the points of which are turned 

 backward ; a median row of scales along the back and belly. Color 

 olivaceous ; sides silvery. Length 17 inches. Northern Europe, occa- 

 sionally taken on the Grand Banks and off the coast of Maine. (Goode 

 & Bean.) (Sild, Norwegian word for Herring.) 

 Argentina silus, ASCANIUS, Icon. Rev. Nat., pi. in, 3, 24, 1763, Norway ; JORDAN & GILBERT, 



Synopsis, 294, 1883; GUNTHER, Cat., vi, 202, I860. 



Silus ascanii, REINHARDT, Bemserk. Skandinav. Ichth., 11, 1833, Norway. 

 Argentina syrtensium, GOODE & BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1878, 261, off Sable Island in 200 



fathoms, from stomach of Phycis tennis. (Type, No. 21624. Coll. R. L. Newcomb.) 



798. ARGENTINA SIALIS, Gilbert. 



Head 3; depth 51; eye3i; interorbital width 4. D. 11; A. 12. Resem- 

 bling Argentina elongata, but with a much deeper body, and a larger eye. 

 Length of maxillary from tip of snout 4 in head, If in snout. Snout but 

 little longer than eye, 3^ in head ; upper jaw with a narrow band of small 

 teeth borne on the vomer and the front of the palatines, not on the very 

 narrow weak premaxillaries; lower jaw toothless; edge of tongue with 

 a series of strong, backwardly curved teeth, six or eight in number. 

 Gill rakers numerous, slender, rather short, about 25 in number below 

 angle of arch. Front of dorsal fin nearer tip of snout than base of caudal 

 by a distance equaling diameter of pupil. Ventrals inserted behind mid- 

 dle of dorsal, midway between base of caudal and front of orbit, extend- 

 ing but little more than halfway to front of anal ; caudal forked. 

 Scales not spinous, the margins entire, a few only preserved along sides 

 of tail ; 40 or 45 in a longitudinal series. Eye, streak along sides and 

 sides of head, silvery ; occiput and snout dusky ; a black blotch above 

 each eye; fins somewhat dusky ; mouth and gill cavity white; peritoneum 

 black. Length 3 inches. Coast of California. One specimen known. 

 (sialiSj a word first used by Swainson to mear. plump, from orm?.of , plump.) 



Argentina sialis, GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1890, 56, Albatross station 3017, in 58 

 fathoms. (Coll. Gilbert.) 



799. ARGENTINA STRIATA, Goode & Bean. 



Head 3 in total length ; depth 7 ; eye 2^, longer than the conical snout. 

 D. 10; A. 11; P. 17; V. 14. Ventrals nearly median, their insertion under 

 the penultimate dorsal rays. Scales in lateral line obliquely striate. 

 Tongue with teeth. Origin of dorsal equidistant between snout and 

 root of caudal. There appears to have been a silvery, longitudinal band 

 under the lateral line. 



