1380 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



past vent, almost to front of anal, their length 3| in length of body. 

 Color bluish-silvery above, silvery below ; very distinct dark longitudinal 

 lines along each row of scales; dorsal, caudal, and anal fins dusky; 

 margin of dorsal fin black ; a dark supraorbital spot; pectoral and ventral 

 fins pale. Length 10 inches. Atlantic coast of tropical America, and 

 West Indies; rather common; north to eastern Florida; known from 

 Havana; Porto Rico; San Domingo; Jamaica; Martinique; Indian River, 

 Florida ; Pernambuco ; Bahia ; Aspinwall ; and Guatemala. Here described 

 from a specimen from Havana. (Named for Charles Plumier, who early 

 made paintings of the fishes of Martinique.) 



Gerres plumieri, CUVIEB & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 452, 1830, Antilles ; 

 Porto Rico ; GUNTHER, Cat. Fishes, i, 340, and iv, 253 ; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 



583 ; EVERMANN & MEEK, I. C., 270. 



1759. GERRES MEXICAIVUS, Steindachner. 



Head 4; depth 2|; scales (6-43 to 45*-12). Closely allied to a. plu- 

 mieri, the body longer, the scales smaller, the second anal spine shorter, f 

 length of second dorsal spine and 1| in head; second dorsal spine nearly 

 as long as head (much * stronger than third but not much higher, 3 in 

 body) ; pectoral short, as long as head, 3f in body, not reaching anal (4 

 scales * in a series from fourth dorsal spine to lateral line, 6 series between * 

 first dorsal spine and lateral line); preorbital and preopercle serrate. 

 Color much as in 6r. plumieri, but paler. Rio Teapa, Mexico, 1 specimen 

 known (Steindachner); not seen by us; apparently distinguished by the 

 small scales. 



Gerres mexicanus, STEINDACHNER, Ueber eine neue Gerres-Art, aus Mexico, Verb. K. K. 

 Geo. Wien, xm, 1863, 383, Rio Teapa, Mexico. 



Family CLIV. KYPHOSHXE. 

 (THE RUDDER FISHES.) 



Herbivorous fishes, with incisor teeth only in the front of the jaws. 

 Body oblong or elevated, with moderate or small scales, ctenoid or not. 

 Mouth moderate, with incisor-like teeth in the front of each jaw; no 

 molars; teeth on vomer and palatines presenter absent; premaxillaries 

 moderately protractile ; preorbital rather narrow, sheathing the maxillary. 

 Gill rakers moderate; pseudobranchiae well developed; opercles entire. 

 Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth ; gill membranes separate, free from the 

 isthmus ; dorsal fin continuous or divi ded , with 10 to 15 rather strong spines, 

 the soft dorsal naked or scaly ; anal with 3 spines ; ventrals thoracic, the 

 rays I, 5, an accessory scale at base; caudal lunate or forked; pectoral fin 

 with all its rays branched. Intestinal canal elongate, with few or many 

 pyloric caeca. Air bladder usually with 2 posterior horns. Vertebrae in 

 ordinary or slightly increased number, 24 to 28. Post-temporal of normal 

 percoid form, the stout forks not adnate to the cranium. Herbivorous 



* These characters in parentheses, not in the original description, are given in a letter 

 from Dr. Steindachner, date August 3, 1895. 



