Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 949 



about 15, mostly of the open sea ; small fishes, rarely used as food, 

 (yoineina, Giiuther, Cat., n, 387, 1860.) 



NOMEIN.K : 

 a. Fiulets none. 



b. Ventrals very long and broad, longer than tho pectorals; attached by a membrane to 



the abdomen and depressible in a deep furrow; mouth narrow; teeth on jaws, 



vomer, and palatines. NOMKUS, 431. 



bb. Ventrals moderate, much shorter than pectorals; snout inflated. I'SKNKS, 432. 



431. NOMEUS, Cuvier. 



jybnH>ws,CrviER, Regne Anim., Ed. i, n, 315, 1817, (gronorii). 



Body oblong, rather compressed, covered with rather small cycloid 

 scales. Head flattish above ; occipital crest little developed; cleft of the 

 mouth narrow. Teeth small, in a single series in the jaws ; teeth on the 

 vomer and palatines. Pseudobranchise large. First dorsal with 10 or 11 

 spines; second dorsal and anal very long, similar to each other, without 

 finlets ; anal fin with 3 rather strong spines, none of them free ; caudal 

 fin not deeply forked ; ventral fins long and broad, attached to the belly 

 by a membrane, depressible in a deep furrow in the abdomen. Lateral 

 line running high. Air bladder present. Pyloric coeca very numerous. 

 Vertebrae 16 -f- 25. Small fishes of the warm seas, our species living com- 

 monly under the protection of the " Portuguese Man-of-War," swimming 

 freely among its poisoned tentacles. Goode & Bean mention the capture 

 of 10 individuals under a single colony of this u Man -of- War." (vbpeve, 

 pastor ; early travelers having compared the fish to a mullet, harder or 

 berger in Dutch. ) 



1347. NOMEUS GRONOVII (Gmelin). 

 (PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR FISH ; HARDER ; PASTOR.) 



Head 3| ; depth 3* ; eye 3i ; snout 4 ; interorbital width 4. D. X-l, 

 26; A. Ill, 26. Body compressed, back and ventral line equally and gen- 

 tly arched. Maxillary reaching to below the front of the eye; ventrals 

 reaching front of anal,* 1 in head ; pectorals reaching past front of anal, 

 a little longer than head. Brownish above, silvery below, the sides below 

 with large round brown spots; cheeks and opercles silvery; ventrals 

 black, with silvery edgings; anal with 3 brown spots ; caudal with brown 

 spots ; pectorals brown above, white below. Tropical parts of the Atlantic 

 and Indian oceans in rather deep water, swimming near the surface, very 

 abundant in the Sargasso Sea, common north to Florida and Bermuda, 

 occasionally farther; Woods Hole, Mass. (Barton A. Bean.) Also recorded 

 by Eigenmann from Panama. (Named for Lawrence Theodore Gronow or 

 Gronovius, a senator of Leyden and one of the ablest ichthyologists con- 

 temporary with Linnaeus.) 



Gobius gronovii, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., xni, 1205, 1788, Tropical America; after GRONOW. 

 Nometis gronovii, GVNTHER, Cat., n, 387, 1860; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 449, 1883. 



*The large fan-shaped ventrals are used in support in resting on the bottom. In swimming 

 they are usually closed in their groove. Goode & Beau. 



