1426 Bulletin <//, United States National Museum. 



short and high, second anal spine 2 in head ; ventrals halfway to anal, 

 pectorals If in head. Color dusky silvery, everywhere soiled with dark 

 points, which form faint streaks along the series of scales; snout and ante- 

 rior part of the chin black; upper part of base of pectoral and axil 

 black. Length 1 foot. West Indies ; generally common ; a food-fish of some 

 importance, (dentcx, toothed.) 



Corvina dentex, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 139, pi. 109, 1830, San 



Domingo. 



Larimus dentex, GUNTHEB, Cat., n, 269, 1860. 

 Odontoscion dentex, POEY, Synopsis, 325, 1868; JORDAN & EIGENMANN, I. c., 377, 1889. 



1807. ODONTOSCIOX XANTHOPS, Gilbert. 



Head 3 ; depth 3f ; eye 3f in head ; snout 4. D. XII, 27 ; A. II, 8 ; P. 17 ; 

 pores in lateral line 50. Head and body elongate, compressed, narrow. 

 Dorsal and ventral outlines nearly equally curved; profile slightly de- 

 pressed over front of orbits, the snout bluntish, not protruding ; jaws equal, 

 the lower wholly included, the symphysis prominent, slightly passing the 

 premaxillaries ; mouth very oblique, the maxillary reaching slightly behind 

 middle of eye, 2 in head; tip of maxillary broad; mental and rostral 

 pores of moderate size, not conspicuous ; a series of slender canines in lower 

 jaw, preceded by an irregular outer villiform row, most evident toward 

 symphysis ; the series of canines turns inward and backward on the sym- 

 physeal protuberance, the innermost pair enlarged, directed backward; 

 upper jaw with a series of conical teeth, similar to those on sides of man- 

 dible, separated by a considerable interspace from an inner series of very 

 small, close-set teeth, directed backward. Eye very large, subcircular; a 

 definite supraorbital ridge; interorbital width 4f ; suborbitals narrow; pre- 

 opercular margin without definite spines, with minute crenulatious, which 

 end in spinous points. Gill rakers long and slender,16 on horizontal limb of 

 arch, the longest f diameter of orbit. Spinous dorsal very high, of weak, 

 flexible spines, none of which is thickened ; third spine highest, as long 

 as snout and eye; eleventh spine shortest; second anal spine strong, 

 equaling length of snout and ^ of eye; pectorals short, not reaching 

 tips of ventrals, l/'o in head; ventrals not reaching vent, extending half- 

 way from their base to front of anal; caudal apparently short and 

 rounded, somewhat mutilated in the type, as are the soft dorsal and anal. 

 Scales large, weakly ctenoid except 'on head, where they are cycloid; 

 maxillary, tip of mandible, and extreme tip of snout naked; head other- 

 wise completely invested ; a definite sheath of scales at base of soft dorsal ; 

 soft portions of all the vertical fins with membranes scaled. Dark steel 

 gray, with olive tinge above, silvery below, the lower parts coarsely punc- 

 tate with brown; blackish streaks follow the row of scales, those below 

 the lateral line broad, horizontal, conspicuous, those above lateral line 

 narrower, less intense, the anterior ones directed obliquely upward, those 

 under soft dorsal nearly horizontal ; fins dusky, the anal, lower caudal 

 lobe, and the terminal portion of ventrals black ; iris bright yellow. Roof 

 of mouth and sides of mandible within orange yellow, the membrane within 

 niandibular teeth black ; tongue faintly yellow ; a dusky yellow bar above 



