NO. 1875. THE JAPANESE SPARID.T:— JORDAN AND THOMPSON. 557 



We can see no distinguishing marks in the specimen described by 

 Doctor Ishikawa as Heterognathodon dbderleini, and the plate given 

 corresponds very closely to our specimen and to tlie published 

 descriptions of Scolopsis inermis. 



This handsome fish is generally common in southern Japan. We 

 saw it at Nagasaki. Another species, Scolopsis hilineata (Bloch), 

 ficnely marked with a pearl-white stripe, occurs in the Kin Kiu Islands 

 and may reach Japanc Scolopsis japonica Bloch is not yet known 

 from Japan 



{inermis, unarmed.) 



6. Family SPARID.E. 



The PORGIES or TAI. 



Body oblong, or more or less elevated, covered with rather large, 

 adherent scales, which are never truly ctenoid. Lateral line well 

 developed, concurrent with the back, not extending on caudal fin. 

 Head large, the crests on the skull usually largely developed. No 

 suborbital stay. Mouth small, terminal, low, and horizontal. Pre- 

 maxillaries little protractile; maxillary short, peculiar m form and in 

 articulation, mthout supplemental bone, for most of its length slip- 

 ping under the edge of the preorbital, which forms a more or less 

 distinct sheath; preorbital usually broad, teeth strong, those in front 

 of jaws conical, incisorlike or molar; lateral teeth of jaws conical and 

 sharp or more or less blunt and molar; no teeth on vomer or palatines 

 except in Evynnis and Neolethrinus, the former with a group on the 

 vomer, the latter having the roof of the mouth with molar teeth; 

 posterior nostril largest, usually more or less oblong or slitlike; lower 

 pharyngeals separate; gills 4, a large slit beliind the fourth; pseudo- 

 branchiae large; giU-rakers moderate; gill membranes separate, free 

 from the isthmus; preopercle entire or serrulate; opercle without 

 spines; sides of head usually scaly; dorsal fin single, continuous, or 

 deeply notched, the spines usually strong, depressible in a groove; 

 spines heteracanthous, that is, alternating, the one stronger on the 

 right side, the other on the left; the spines 10 to 13 in number; anal 

 fin rather short, similar to the soft dorsal, and with 3 spines; soft 

 dorsal and anal fins naked; ventral fins thoracic, the rays I, 5, with a 

 more or less distinct scalelike appendage at base; caudal fin usually 

 more or less concave behind; air bladder present, usually simple; 

 pyloric cseca few; vertebrae usually 10+14 = 24; intestinal canal 

 short. Carnivorous shore fishes of the tropical seas, especially abun- 

 dant in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and West Indies. Genera about 

 18, species about 115, most of them much valued as food. 



