Jordan and JSvermann. Fishes of North America. 533 



247. TRACHINOCEPHALUS, Gill. 



Trachinocephalits, GILL, Cat. Fish. East Coast N. Amer., 53, 1851, (mi/ops). (Name only; first 

 dctiiii'd by JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 281, 1883.) 



This genus is closely related to Synodus, from which it differs chiefly 

 in form and in the relative development of the fins. Body stout, the 

 head short, blunt, and compressed, its form much as in the genus Trachl- 

 nus. Vent well formed, very slightly nearer base of caudal than base of 

 ventrals, under tip of last dorsal ray. Teeth as in Synodus, but slender, 

 smaller, and closely set. Lower jaw projecting. Species few, shore 

 fishes, widely diffused in the tropical seas. (Trachinus, the weaver-fish, 

 connected with dpanaiva, dragon, the name still used in Greece; Kefiahrj, 

 head.) 



805. TRACHINOCEPHALUS MYOPS (Forster). 

 (GROUND SPEARING; LAGARTO.) 



Head 3f ; depth about 5. D. 11 5 A. 14 or 15 ; scales 4-58-7. Vertebrae 58 ; 

 cceca 25. Snout very short, shorter than eye, lower jaw projecting ; top 

 of head rough ; interorbital space concave. Pectoral very short, nearly 

 2 in head, scarcely reaching beyond the front of the very long ventrals, 

 which are as long as head and reach vent ; anal very large, its base li in 

 head, longer than the dorsal. Light brown; three or more lengthwise 

 stripes of yellowish alternating with brown, the upper stripe just above 

 lateral line and edged with darker ; a pale streak along lateral line; six 

 diffuse brown cross blotches on back, ceasing just below lateral line; 

 back mottled, a large black scapular blotch ; top of head vermiculated ; 

 a dark brown band from eye across lower jaw; fins nearly plain. Tropi- 

 cal parts of the western Atlantic, abundant and widely diffused ; common 

 in West Indies and Brazil, and ranging on our Atlantic Coast to South 

 Carolina ; originally described from St. Helena. (fiijutp, short-sighted, 

 blinking.) 



Salmo myops, FORSTER MS., BLOCK & SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth., 421, 1801, St. Helena. 

 Oxinvnixlemniscatus, LACKPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 236, 1803, Martinique; after PI umier. 

 Saurus truncaius, AGASSIZ, Pise. Brasil., 82, 1828, Brazil. 

 f Salmo trachinus, SCHEGEL, Fauna Japon. Poiss., 231, 1842, Japan ; the East Indian, Chinese, 



and Japanese form, Trachinocephalus lintbatus, is little if at all different from T. myops. 

 ? SmiruK limlxttus, EYDOUX & SOULEYET, Voyage Bonite, Poiss., 199, 1853. 

 Sanrtis brevirostris, POEY, Memorias, n, 305, 1861, Cuba ; erroneously stated to have 10 rays. 

 SHUI-H* imjops, GUNTIIER, fat., v, 398, 1864. 

 tS//)7//.si////oj>s, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 281, 1883. 

 Trachinocephalus myops, JORDAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1890, 314. 



248. SYNODUS* (Gronow) Bloch & Schneider. 

 (LIZARD FISHES.) 



Synodus (GRONOW) BLOCH & SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth., 396, 1801, (synodus). 



Tints, RAFINESQUE, Caratteri, etc., 56, 1810, (ntarmoralus). 



Haunts, CUVIER, Regnc Animal, Ed. i, 169, 1817, (saurus). 



Alpismaris, Kisso, Eur. Merid., in, 458, 1826 (AJpistnaris rwo), (very young). 



Laurida (ARISTOTLE) SWAINSON, Nat. Hist. Anim., n, 287, 1839, (medUerraneus = saurus). 



* The species of Synodus have been critically studied by Dr. Seth E. Meek, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. 

 Phila. for 1884. 



