1236 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



small, those on opercle large. Eye small, much shorter than snout. Pre- 

 opercular strongly dentate ; teeth enlarged on angle, hooked upward on 

 posterior limb. Pectorals shorter than ventrals, which do not reach vent ; 

 soft dorsal higher than the spinous portion. Small scales running up on 

 the base of soft dorsal, anal, and caudal. Blackish above, becoming sil- 

 very gray on the sides; often blotched and tinged with yellow ; fins dusky 

 gray, sometimes with yellow. A large fish of rather sluggish habits, 

 reaching a length of 3 feet, and found in all warm seas; north on our 

 coasts to Cape Cod and Panama ; not very common; straying occasion- 

 ally to the Mediterranean ; used as food. Variable, the young looking 

 quite unlike the adult. (Eu.) 



Holocentrus surinamensis, BLOCH, Ichth., pi. 243, 1790, Surinam. 



Bodianus triurus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc., i, 1815, 418, Powles Hook, New Jersey. 



Lobotes erate, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 322, 1830, Pondicherry. 



Lobotes-farkharii, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 324, 1830, Malacca; on a draw- 

 ing of Major FARKH^R. 



Lobotes somnolentus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 324, 1830, San Domingo. 



Lobotes incurvus, RICHARDSON, Tenth. China, 237, 1846, China. 



Lobotes auclorum, GUNTHER, Cat., i, 338, 1859, Cuba; Calcutta; China ; DODERLEIN, Una Specie 

 del genere Esotico Lobotes a Palermo, 1875, 1. 



Lobotes surinamensis, HOLBROOK, Ichth. S. C., 169, 1860. 



Family CXLVIII. PRIACANTHID.E.* 



(CATALUFAS.) 



Body oblong or ovate, compressed, covered with small, firm, rough 

 scales ; all parts of the body and head, even the snout and maxillaries, 

 being densely scaly, each scale with a more or less developed plate on its 

 posterior border, most developed in the young. Head deep. Mouth large, 

 very oblique, the lower jaw prominent. Villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, 

 and palatines, none on the tongue. Premaxillaries protractile. Maxillary 

 broad, without supplemental bone, not slipping under the very narrow 

 preorbital, which is usually serrate ; no suborbital stay. Eye very large, 

 forming about one-half the length of the side of the head. Posterior 

 nostril long, slit-like, close to the eye. Preopercle more or less serrated, 

 one or more strong spines at its angle ; operculum very short, ending in 

 two or three points behind; no barbels. Gill membranes separate, free 

 from the isthmus. Pseudobranchise very large, extending along whole 

 length of opercle. Postorbital part of head very short, the opercle small. 

 Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Gill rakers long. Branchiostegals 6. 

 Lateral line continuous, not extending on the caudal. Dorsal fin con- 

 tinuous, X, 9 to 15, the spines depressible in a grobve; anal rays III, 9 

 to 15, the soft part long, similar to the soft dorsal, the spines strong ; 

 ventrals very large, thoracic, I, 5, close together, in advance of base of 

 pectoral, joined to belly by a membrane which incloses a groove ; no 

 axillary process ; spine strong; pectorals small, pointed, not symmetrical, 

 of 19 or 20 rays, the upper longest ; caudal fin truncate or lunate. Spines 



*For an account of the American species of Priacanlhidse, see MORRISON, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., 

 Phila., 1889, 160. 



