958 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



blackish ; pectorals and ventrals yellowish. Each scale of sides (in speci- 

 men 12 inches long) with a spinous ridge along its middle. (Lunel.) 

 Havana. One specimen in the museum at Geneva. It is evidently a 

 Taractes, but with the fins much lower than in Taractes longipinnis. 

 (Named for Prof. Henri de Saussure, of Geneva, a writer on Crustacea, 

 insects, etc. 



Brama saussurii, LUNEL, Revue du Genre Brama, Mem. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve, xvin,185, 

 pi. 2, 1865, Cuba; POEY, Synopsis, 358, 1868. 



437. BRAMA,* Bloch *fc Schneider. 



(POMFRET. ) 



Brama, BLOCH & SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth., 98, 1801, (rait). 

 Lepodus, RAFINESQUE, Caratteri, etc., 63, 1810, (saragus). 



Body oblong or elevated, compressed, covered with rather small cycloid 

 scales, each of which is usually composed of a bony ridge or spine, with 

 a cycloid free edge, the bony vertical portion often becoming hidden with 

 age. Mouth wide, oblique, the lower jaw the longer; the jaws and pal- 

 atines provided with slender teeth ; maxillary broad, scaly. No teeth in 

 the oesophagus. Opercle moderately developed ; preopercle entire, serru- 

 late in the young. Snout obtuse and convex, supraoccipital crest highly 

 elevated, extending forward to tip of snout. Dorsal and anal fins very 

 long, both with the anterior lobe more or less elevated, the first ray of 

 dorsal over the ventrals and notably behind the head; a few (3 or 4) of 

 the anterior rays developed as slender graduated spines ; ventrals small, 

 thoracic, the number of rays 1, 5. Soft parts of vertical fins covered with 

 small scales except along the edge. Pyloric cceca5; branchiostegals 7 ; 

 vertebra) about 40; pseudobranchise large; air bladder large. Shoulder 

 girdle very heavy, as in Lampris, the hypocoracoid especially thick and 

 large, excluding the small pelvis from contact with the clavicle. Neurals 

 and interneurals comparatively small. Large pelagic fishes of dusky 

 colors, widely distributed and descending to considerable depths, the 

 adult quite unlike the young. (Brama, bream, Abramis, the species hav- 

 ing been called Brama marina by John Ray.) 



a. Dorsal rays about III, 30; anal rays II, 19 or 20; caudal not deeply forked. 



b. Caudal fin bordered with white (as in Taractes), its middle rays not salient; longest dor- 

 sal rays more than half depth of body. AGASSIZII, 1357. 

 Mi. Caudal fin without whitish border, its middle rays somewhat salient; longest dorsal 

 rays depth of body. BREVOORTII, 1358. 

 aa. Dorsal rays III, 31 to 33; anal rays II, 26 or 27; scales in lateral line 80 to 90; longest 

 dorsal rays about half depth of body; caudal very deeply forked, its middle rays not 

 salient. RAII, 1359. 



* A very elaborate study of Brama has been completed by Liitken, based upon a large series, 

 chiefly of young specimens. Concerning B. rail he concludes that it is quite cosmopolitan in its 

 distribution, occurring from the Faroe Islands to the Cape of Good Hope, and is represented by 

 closely similar, if not identical, forms on the coast of Chile (B. chileusis and australis) and New 

 Zealand (B. squamosa) and in the waters of Japan. He states that it has not yet been found in 

 the West Indies or off the east coast of North America, overlooking, perhaps, the fact that 

 Brama rail was observed at the Bermudas in 1880 by Dr. Goode. He considers B. orcini and B. 

 dussumieri and Taractes asper to be immature forms and gives a very doubtful acceptance to six 

 species, claiming to be distinct from B. rail, described from various parts of the Atlantic. 

 ( Goode ABean.) 



Brama rail is not unfreqently taken on the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. 

 Taraclea asper is, however, not the young of Brama rail, but belongs to a distinct genus. 



