Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1477 



1863. MENTICIRRHUS LITTORALIS (Holbrook). 



(SURF WHITING; SILVER WHITING.) 



Head 34 ; depth 4f ; eye 6 in head ; snout 3|. D. X-I, 23 to 25 ; A. I, 7 ; 

 scales 6-53, 12 pores. Upper lohe of caudal not longer than lower; scales 

 rather large, 15 to 18 in an oblique series from vent upward and forward 

 to lateral line; axillary scale not length of pectoral; snout distinctly 

 projecting, beyond mouth; gill rakers larger than in other species, the 

 longest about \ length of pupil, the number x -f 7 ; lower pharyngeal bones 

 broad, most of the teeth developed as coarse molars, only those along the 

 posterior margin conical; maxillary reaching past front of orbit, 3 in 

 head; outer teeth of upper jaw scarcely enlarged; longest dorsal spines 

 reaching past front of soft dorsal, the free margin of the fin concave; cau- 

 dal rather deeply Innate, the lower lobe rounded, the upper pointed; ven- 

 trals If in pectorals, which are l^in head. Color silvery gray above, with 

 bluish and bronze reflections, immaculate ; a dark-bronze shade along sides 

 on level of pectorals, extending to tail and along cheeks; belly below this 

 abruptly white; dorsals light brown, spinous dorsal black at tip, the base 

 narrowly white ; caudal pale, its tip usually black ; inner lining of pectoral 

 and ventrals blackish; gill cavity pale. South Atlantic and Gulf coasts 

 of the United States, North Carolina to Texas; generally common in the 

 surf along the sandy shores of the Southern States. It resembles Menti- 

 cin-hns americanus somewhat in external characters so that it has often 

 been confounded with it by careless observers. Its technical distinctions 

 are, howev r er, numerous, and in the form of its pharyngeal teeth it differs 

 in a marked degree from the true Menticirrhus. (littoralis, pertaining to 

 the shores.) 

 TJmbrina littoralis, HOLBROOK, Ichthyol. S. Carolina, 1st ed., 142, pi. 20, fig. 1, 1856, South 



Carolina; GUNTHER, Cat., II, 276, 1860. 

 Menticirrhus littoralis, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 933, 1883; JORDAN & EIGENMANN, 



I.e., 432,1889. 



592. PARALONCHURUS, Bocourt. 



(CORVALOS.) 



Paralonchiirifs, BOCOURT, Nouv. Archiv Mus. Paris, iv, 21, 1869 (petersi). 



Polycirrhus, BOCOURT, Nouv. Archiv Mus. Paris, iv, 22, 1869 (dumerili); not Polycirrhus, 



GRUBE, 1850, a genus of worms. 



Pohjclemus, BERG, A nn. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires 1895, 54 (dumerili); substitute for Poly- 

 cirrhus, preoccupied. 



Zonoscion, JORDAN & EVERMANN, Check-List, 401, 1896 (rathbuni). 

 Zaclonns, GILBERT, in JORDAN &. EVERMANN, Check List, 401, 1896 (goodei). 



Body more or less elongate, the head rather slender; preopercle without 

 bony serratures; a row of slender barbels along the inner edge of the 

 dentary bones, and a small tuft at the chin; no pseudobranchiai : gill 

 rakers obsolete, or nearly so ; teeth in bands, the outer above enlarged or 

 not; soft dorsal usually rather long; spinous dorsal and anal moderate; 

 scales moderate or rather small; caudal long. Species rather numerous; 

 South American; closely agreeing in technical characters but divisible 

 into 4 strongly marked groups which may be genera, (itapd, near ; to Lon- 

 chiiirus, with which genus they agree in the absence of pseudobranchise). 



