Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 729 



and last caudal vertebra ; anal fin opposite dorsal ; lower lobe of caudal 

 rather short, slightly longer than head. Color blue above, silvery below; 

 pectorals (dusky in the young) becoming nearly white in the adult ; color 

 of ventrals very similar to pectorals, the duskiness in the young formed 

 of fine blackish dots; upper half of anterior rays of dorsal fin black; 

 anal fin with few small black dots, more numerous in the young ; caudal 

 dusky reddish. Length 7 inches. Tropical seas, common both in the East 

 Indies and West Indies, and in the Hawaiian Islands. It ranges north in 

 the Gulf Stream to Newport, and is the commonest flying-fish of the Car- 

 olina region. The young often has one or two fleshy barbels on the tip of 

 the lower jaw, these being fragile and easily destroyed, (^t-croc, middle; 

 }'CTr;/p, belly, referring to the insertion of the ventrals.) 



Exoccetus mesogaster, BLOCH, Ichthyologia, pi. 399, 1795, Martinique; on a drawing by Plumier, 



in which the pectorals and ventrals are much too long; JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S.Nat. 



Mus., 1882, 588. 

 Exoaetus orbigiiiamts, CUVIER & VALENCIENNKS, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xix, 131, 1846, Montevideo; 



based on a drawing; GONTHER, Cat., vx, 285, 1866. 



Exoccetus hillianus, GOSSE, Nat. Sojourn Jamaica, n, pi. 1, fig. 1, 1851, Jamaica; LUTKEN, 



Vid. Medd. Naturh. Foren., 397, 1876; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 903, 1883. 

 Exoccetus grylhts, KLTJNZiNOER. Fische des Rothen Meeres, 586, 1870, Red Sea; fide LUTKEN. 

 Parexoccetiis mesogaster, JORDAN & MEEK, I. c., 47. 



334. HALOCYPSELUS, Weinland. 



Haloajpselus, WEINLAND, Proc. Boat. Soc. Nat. Hist., vi, 1859, 385, * (mesogaster = evolans). 



This genus differs from Exoccetus mainly in the anterior position and 

 small size of the ventral fins, which terminate in advance of the anal fin, 

 and are not used as organs of flight. Species few; one of them the most 

 widely diffused and abundant of all flying-fishes. (a/If , sea ; Kvipehog, a 

 swallow, or swift, living in holes in sand banks ; /ai/>/b;, a hollow vessel.) 



1079. HALOCYPSELUS EVOLANS (Linnseus). 



Head 4 in length ; depth 5. Snout rather blunt, 4i in head ; 

 interorbital area flattish, 3 in head. Eye 3 to 4 in head. D. 13; A. 

 13 ; scales about 42. Origin of ventral fins midway between tip of snout 

 and last ray of anal ; length of ventrals half length of head ; pectorals H 

 in length of body, their tips reaching base of caudal ; first ray of pec- 

 toral simple, second divided ; anal fin long, scarcely shorter than dorsal, 

 its first ray usually opposite first ray of dorsal ; dorsal low, its first ray 

 less than half head ; lower lobe of caudal about i longer than head. Gill 

 rakers long and slender. Olivaceous above, dotted with dark. Pectoral fins 

 dark above, with the lower margins white; no white oblique crossbar; 

 ventrals white ; caudal dusky ; dorsal and anal pale, without black mark- 

 ings ; a white streak along base of anal, wider and more conspicuous ante- 

 riorly. Young with 2 dark cross bands and sometimes with a small barbel 

 at the chin. In all warm seas, north in summer to Newfoundland, 



* Although Dr. Weinland calls the type of this genus " mesogaster," it is evident from his 

 description that the species examined by him was Halocypselus evolans. 



