Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1417 



little conspicuous; vertebrae 10 -f- 14; gill rakers long and slender, scales 

 small; pseudobranchi.o present. Air bladder with 2 horns. Soft dorsal 

 and anal long and scaly ; spines of iins weak. Lower pharyngeals narrow, 

 separate. Two species; singular-looking fishes allied to Cynoscion, but 

 weakly armed. (Nebris, an old name of some fish.) 



. . Scales above lateral line 80, pores 50. MICROPS, 1795. 



an. Scales above lateral line 110, pores 55. ZESTUS, 1796. 



1795. \EBUIS JIH'ltO I'S, Ouvier & Valenciennes. 



Head 3; depth 4; eye minute, 1U in head, 2.] in snout, 4 in interorbital 

 area, 1| in width of maxillary, which is very broad. D. VIII-I, 31; A. II, 

 13 ; scales 18-85-18, 50 pores. 



Body plum]), anteriorly tapering to the slender caudal peduncle; profile 

 straight, head broad, heavy, extremely spongy above ; mouth very large, 

 oblique ; lower jaw projecting, premaxillary anteriorly on a level with the 

 middle of the eye ; maxillary extending to below posterior margin of orbit, 

 2 in head; teeth all minute, those of the lower jaw in a single series, 

 those in the upper jaw in a band which widens backward; tongue large 

 and thick ; head entirely scaly; margin of the preopercle indistinct, with 

 a very wide membranaeeous edge, which is nearly covered with scales ; gill 

 rakers long and slender, 5 + 15; scales small, cycloid; lateral line little 

 arched ; the bases, at least of all the soft fins, densely covered with small 

 scales; dorsal spines feeble, shorter than the dorsal rays; caudal lanceo- 

 late; pectorals li m head ; ventrals 1. Color silvery, darker above; pec- 

 torals dusky on their inner margin. Atlantic coast of northern South 

 America, Guiana and Brazil, on sandy shores, (/.tinpos, small; ew^, eye.) 



Nebris microps, CuviER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 149, pi. 112, 1830, Surinam ; 

 GUNTHER, Cat. ,n, 316,1860; STEINDACHNER, Ichth. Beitr., iv, 10, 1875; JORDAN & GIL- 

 BERT, Bull. U. S. Fish. Comra. 1882, 111 ; JORDAN & EIGENMANN, I. c., 374. 



1796. NEBRIS ZESTUS, Jordan & Starks, new species. 



Head 31; depth 4f. D. VI to VIII, 28 to 31; A. II, 12; eye 10 in head; 

 snout 4; maxillary 2.V; highest dorsal spine 3; pectoral at least 1; ven- 

 tral 2; scales 20-110-20; lateral line with about 55 pores. Body scarcely 

 compressed, the dorsal and ventral outlines about equal and uniform. 

 Head large; anterior profile more or less decurved over snout, thence 

 gently curved to dorsal; snout blunt, the nostrils close together and close 

 to eye; mouth large, very oblique, the jaws about equal; maxillary very 

 broad, truncate behind, reaching to posterior margin of eye ; teeth villi- 

 form in several series in upper jaw, in 1 in lower, all pointed and curved 

 inward; tongue large and thick; gill rakers slender, the longest a little 

 longer than eye, 6 + 12 in number; a short slit behind last gill arch; 

 pseudobranchiai very small. Head entirely scaled; scales on head larger 

 than on body ; margin of preopercle indistinct, with a wide membranaeeous 

 edge ; scales along lateral line running to end of caudal rays, nearly twice 

 as large as those on the rest of body. Spines of dorsal very feeble and 

 covered with small scales, the third spine highest, slightly higher than 

 3030 - 12 



