268 WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW TO CATCH FISH 



" Elops capensis. Smith, Zool. South Africa, 1845, pi. 7, Cape 

 of Good Hope. 



"Elops perpurascens. Richardson, Icth., China, 311, 1840, 



China." 



"Family XVI. ALBULID^E." 



"(The Lady-fishes.)" 

 Pages 81-83. 



The illustration is of Bone- fish of Biscayne Bay and the Keys. 



" Body rather elongate, little compressed, covered with rather 

 small, brilliantly silvery scales ; head naked. Snout conic, subquad- 

 rangular, shaped like the snout of a pig, and overlapping the small, 

 inferior, horizontal mouth. Maxillary rather strong, short, with a 

 distinct supplemental bone, slipping under the membranaceous edge 

 of the very broad preorbital ; premaxillaries short, not protractile. 

 Lateral margin of upper jaw formed by maxillaries ; both jaws, vomer, 

 and palatines with bands of villiform teeth ; broad patches of coarse, 

 blunt, paved teeth on the tongue behind and on the sphenoid and 

 pterygoid bones. Eye large, medium in head, with a bony ridge 

 over it, and almost covered with an annular adipose eyelid. Opercle 

 moderate, firm ; preopercle with a broad, flat, membranaceous edge, 

 which extends backward over the base of opercle. Pseudobranchia; 

 present. Gill rakers short, tubercle-like. Gill membranes entirely 

 separate, free from isthmus ; branchiostegals about 14 ; a fold of skin 

 across gill membranes anteriorly, its posterior free edge cretiate ; no 

 gular plate. Lateral line present. Belly not carinate, flattish, cov- 

 ered with ordinary scales. Dorsal fin moderate, in front of ventrals, 

 its membranes scaly; no adipose fin; and very small caudal widely 

 forked. Pyloric coeca numerous. Parietal bones meeting along top 

 of head. Vertebrae numerous, 42-28-70. 



" A single species known, found in all warm seas. In this, and 

 probably in related families, the young pass through a metamorphosis 

 analogous to that seen in the Conger Eels. They are for a time elon- 

 gate, band-shaped, with very small head and loose, transparent tis- 

 sues. From this condition they become gradually shorter, shrinking 

 from 3 to 3}4 inches in length to 2 inches. According to Dr. Gil- 

 bert, this process, like that seen in various eels, is a normal one, 

 through which all individuals pass. In the Gulf of California, where 

 these fishes abound, these band-shaped young are often thrown by the 

 waves on the beach in great masses." 



