906 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



414. ELAGATIS, Bennett. 



(RUNNERS.) 



Elagatis, BENNETT, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, n, 283, 1835, (bipinnulata). 

 Seriolichtttys, BI.EEKER. Natuurk. Tydschr. Nederl. Tnd., vi, 196, 1854, (bipinnulata). 

 Decaptm, POEY, Memorlas, n, 1860, 233, (pinnulalus). 



Body long and slender. Second dorsal and anal long, each with one 

 detached finlet composed of 2 rays behind the rest of the fin. Other- 

 wise essentially as in Seriola. One species pelagic. (?/Aar?7, a spindle.) 



1296. ELAGATIS BIPINNULATUS (Quoy & Gaimard). 

 (RUNNER ; YELLOW-TAIL.) 



Head 3 ; depth 3| ; eye 5i ; snout 2|. D. VI-I, 27, 2 ; A. II-I, 17, 2 ; 

 scales about 100. Maxillary triangular, its greatest width 2| in its 

 length ; supplementary bone long and linear, all except its caudo-ventral 

 margin slipping under the preobital; preorbital and preopercle entire. 

 Length of mandible equal to distance from tip of snout to middle of 

 pupil ; distance from tip of upper jaw to posterior end of maxillary 3J 

 in head. Body oblong, elliptical, the back little elevated; head rather 

 long and pointed, the mouth terminal ; a slight occipital keel. Gill 

 rakers about all below the angle, cephalic ones gradually shorter, the 

 longest about li in eye. Lateral line wavy, origin at dorsal edge of opercle, 

 the cephalic end running slightly dorsal to opposite origin of spinous 

 dorsal, then turning slightly ventral until opposite origin of anal fin, 

 and then median to caudal fin. Origin of soft dorsal slightly nearer tip 

 of snout than base of caudal ; spinous dorsal low, the third and fourth 

 spines longest, about 5-$- in head ; soft dorsal and anal similar, each 

 slightly falcate ; longest dorsal ray 2| in head, the thirteenth shortest, 

 6 in head ; second ray of dorsal finlet twice length of first, or 4 in head; 

 longest anal ray 3i in head, about as long as second ray of finlet; the 

 two small anal spines remote from the rest; pectorals short and broad, 

 nearly 2 in head ; ventrals short, 2 in head, folding in a ventral depres- 

 sion ; caudal widely forked, the lobes attenuate and slightly longer than 

 head. Body covered with small cycloid scales ; head naked, except por- 

 tion of cheeks and part of its dorso-canidal margin ; scales on cheeks in 

 about 6 series, those on nape smaller than those on upper portions of 

 body. Color dark blue or lead above, becoming pale yellowish below . 

 two conspicuous blue bands on sides of body, the upper one beginning at 

 the orbit and passing to dorsal margin of caudal peduncle, its width 

 about equal to diameter of eye ; the other beginning at snout and pass- 

 ing along lower margin of orbit, across opercle and above pectoral fin to 

 caudal ; caudal yellowish, with a darker margin ; ventrals and pectorals 

 yellowish, with some blue. Length 2| feet. Tropical seas, occasionally 

 in the West Indies, straying northward to Long Island, where the speci- 

 mens upon which the above description is based were secured by Dr. 

 Meek, (bi-pinnulatus, with two pinnules.) 



