736 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



between pupil and last caudal vertebra ; base of anal If in base of dorsal ; 

 pectoral ly in length, reaching last ray of dorsal; ventrals 2f in body, 

 reaching last ray of anal; snout 3 in head ; eye 3 ; ^ ; lower lobe of caudal 

 about i longer than head. Pectoral fins with an oblique white band 

 across lower half of fin; dorsal and anal plain ; ventrals white, their axil 

 scarcely dusky. Length 15 inches. Atlantic Ocean, generally common 

 southward on both coasts, straying northward to banks of Newfoundland 

 and to England. The young are often provided with a long barbel at the 

 chin, (erepof, different ; ovpd, tail, but all species of flying-fishes have the 

 tail unequal.) 



Exocoetus heterurus, RAFINESQUE, Caratteri di Alcuni Nuovi Generi, etc., 58, 1810, Palermo; JOR- 

 DAN & MEEK, I. c., 59. 

 Exoccelus comatus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y., 1815, 418, pi. 5, fig. 1, New York; 



LUTKEN, Vid. Medd. Naturh. Foren., fig. 1, 106, 1876, 36 W., 11 N.; apparently a young 



form, with long mental barbel. 

 Exocoetus noveboracensis, MITCHILL, Amer. Monthly Mag., n, 1811, 233, New York; JORDAN & 



GILBERT, Synopsis, 904, 1883. 

 fixocaetus appendiculatus, WOOD, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1824, 283, pi. 17, fig. 24, (young), south 



coast United States. 



Exocoetus melanurus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xix, 101, 1846, New York. 

 Exocoetus volitans GUNTHEB, Cat., vi, 293, 1866, not of LINNAEUS; L(JTKEN, Vid. Medd. Naturh. 



Foren., 10, 108, 1876; DAY, Fishes Great Britain, 155, pi. 228, 1883, (straggler to coast of 



England). 

 ? Cypselurus comatus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 381, 1883. 



1086. EXOC<ETUS LUTKENI, Jordan & Evermann, new species. 



Head 4 ; depth 5|. D. 14 ; A. 9 ; 50 scales in lateral line. Body rather 

 robust. Head broad, rather pointed forward ; snout not very blunt, 4 

 in length of head ; eye large, 2f in head ; interorbital area flattish, 3 in 

 head. Pectoral fins broad, their tips reaching posterior end of base of 

 anal fin ; length of pectorals If- in length of body. Length of ventrals 2f 

 in length of body, their tips reaching nearly to posterior end of base of 

 anal fin ; origin of ventrals midway between pupil and base of caudal fin. 

 First ray of pectoral simple, its length little more than | length of fin; 

 second ray divided; 23 scales before the ventrals; 28 scales before the 

 dorsal fin ; 7 rows of scales between lateral line and dorsal fin ; longest 

 dorsal ray 2 in head; lower lobe of caudal about i longer than head. 

 Color brownish above, silvery below ; pectoral black on its posterior half; 

 lighter on anterior, with a broad, white, oblique band which begins in 

 the axil and extends about f across the fin ; ventrals white, dusky in axil ; 

 dorsal and anal fin plain ; caudal dusky, with a black vertical bar across 

 the base of its middle rays. This species is known from a single specimen, 

 9 inches long, in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Phil- 

 adelphia, from Cape San Antonio, Cuba. It was formerly identified by 

 Jordan & Meek with an Australian species, Exocoetus rolustns, but it differs 

 in numerous respects from the latter, although a related form. (Named for 

 Christian Fredrik Liitken, one of the most learned and accurate of ich- 

 thyologists, whose paper on the flying-fishes is the basis of our present 

 knowledge of the group.) 



Exocostus robustus, JORDAN & MEEK, 1. c., 61; probably not of GtiNTHER, Cat., vi, 289, 1866, Aus- 

 tralia. 



