876 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



abruptly below the second dorsal. Teeth triangular, strongly compressed, 

 about 30 on each jaw. Pectoral 5 in body. Gill rakers very short, less than 

 i diameter of eye, about 8 below the angle. Adult iron gray, nearly or 

 quite immaculate ; young with the sides of body marked with darker 

 yellowish spots ; spinous dorsal without black blotch anteriorly. Tropi- 

 cal Atlantic, in the open seas, coining in immense numbers to the Florida 

 Keys and Charleston, ranging north to Cape Cod and south to Africa 

 and Brazil ; very common on our South Atlantic coast, especially among 

 the Florida Keys, the catch at Key West very large. One of the best food- 

 fishes of the Florida coast, with firm rich flesh. It reaches a length of 

 5 feet and a weight of 100 pounds. (Cavalla or Caballa, a Spanish name, 

 from caballus, horse.) 



Cybium cavalla, CUVIER, Regne Anim., Ed. 2, n, 200, 1829, Brazil ; after Guarapucu of MARC- 



GRAVE. 

 Cybium caballa, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poise., vm, 187, 1831, Brazil ; GUNTHER, 



Cat., ii, 373, 1860. 



Cylrium immaculatum, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, I. c., viii, 191, 1831, no locality. 

 Scomberomorus caballa, JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 268, 1882 ; JORDAN & GILBERT, 



Synopsis, 427, 1883 ; MEEK & NEWLAND, I. c., 235, 1885. 

 Scomberomorus cavalla, DRESSLAR & FESLER, 1. c., 444, pi. xi, 1889. 



395. ACANTHOCYBIUM, Gill. 

 (PETOS.) 



AcantliocyUum, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, 125, (sara = solandri). 



Body elongate, fusiform. Head very long, slender and pointed, the 

 mandible being longer than upper jaw; jaws forming a sort of beak; 

 cleft of mouth extending to below eye ; posterior part of maxillary 

 covered by the preorbital ; both jaws armed with a close series of trench- 

 ant teeth, ovate or truncate; their edges finely serrate; villiform teeth 

 on vomer and palatines ; gills as in Xiplilas, their laminae forming a net- 

 work ; scales small, scarcely forming a corselet ; those along the base of 

 dorsal enlarged and lanceolate; keel strong; caudal spinous; dorsal very 

 long, its spines about 25 in number. One species, a very large mackerel-like 

 fish, widely distributed ; especially abundant about the Florida Straits. 

 This remarkable genus indicates a long step from Scomberomorus toward 

 the type of the swordfishes. (aitavOa, spine; Cybium; the name Kvfiiov 

 was originally applied to the cured flesh of m 



1266. ACANTHOCYBIUM SOLANDRI (Cuvier & Valenciennes). 

 (PETO ; WAHOO ; GUARAPUCU.) 



Head 4 ; depth 6i ; eye 5 in snout ; gape more than half length of head ; 

 premaxillaries in front prolonged in a sort of beak, which is nearly half 

 length of snout ; teeth somewhat irregular, the posterior much the largest, 

 all strong, serrated, about 50 in each jaw. Dorsal spines mostly subequal ; 

 lateral line descending abruptly under sixteenth dorsal spine ; the 

 highest, behind the middle of fin, 5f in head ; dorsal and anal lobes low. 

 Caudal lobes short, very abruptly spreading, their length about head. 



