NO. 1875. THE JAPANESE SPARID.E— JORDAN AND THOMPSON. 575 



Kishinouye records the collection by Mr. Nakamura of a skull lacking 

 these vomerine teeth and supposes it a hybrid with P. major. 

 Wliether the difference in frontals is due to hyperosteal thickening 

 is questionable. 



This species is rather common in Japan, less abundant and smaller 

 in size than the red Tai. We saw this species at Matsushima, 

 Tokyo, Misaki, and probably in other places. 



(cardinalis, cardinal red.) 



16. Genus PAGROSOMUS Gill. 



Pagrosomus Gill, Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 6, 1893, p. 97 (auratus=unicolor). 

 Sparosomus ^ Gill, Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 6, 1893, pp. 116, 123. 

 (nuratus) {lapsus for Pagrosomus). 



Type. — Ldbrus auratus Bloch and Schneider. 



Body oblong, rather deep, compressed, covered with large scales. 

 Head large; preopercle entire; opercle not armed. Mouth rather 

 small, terminal, low^, the anterior teeth in the jaws cardiform, the 

 outer series of teeth generally enlarged, caninelike, not compressed, 

 the teeth behind the canines slender and acute. Both jaws with 

 2 or 3 series of rounded molar teeth, which are sometimes irregularly 

 mixed with slender teeth. No teeth on vomer or palatines. Poste- 

 rior nostril oblong, not slitlike, much larger than anterior. Pre- 

 opercle with a few scales or none. Dorsal spines about 12 in num- 

 ber, depressible in a groove; anal spines moderate, the second not 

 greatly developed ; second interhsemal spine not pen shaped ; no 

 antrorse dorsal spine; supraoccipital crest high, the inner lateral 

 or parietal crests low, little developed. Caudal fin forked; air 

 bladder simple; gill-rakers short; branchiostegals 6; intestinal canal 

 short; pyloric cseca few. Carnivorous fishes, mostly of the coasts of 

 Asia and Australia, closely related to the Atlantic genus Pagrus,^ 

 but differing, as iniderstood by us, in the deep body, the depth about 

 two-fifths of the length, and in the little development of the inner 

 lateral crest of the cranium. This is obsolescent in Pagrosomus 

 auratus and Pagrosomus major. In the related genus, Argyrops^ 

 (spinifera) the body is still deeper and the back more elevated; the 

 parietal crests are rather higher and further removed anteriorly 

 from the supraoccipital crest, although rather lower than in the 

 genera Pagrus and Dentex. In Argyrops, the dorsal spines are 

 much elevated, and filamentous, even more so than in Evynnis 

 cardinalis. On the whole, Argyrops spinifera seems to be genericaUy 



» Not Sparisoma Swainson, Class. Anim., vol. 2, 1839, p. 227, a genus of Scaroid fishes; not Sparosoma 

 Sauvage, Bull. Soc. Geol. (3), vol. 11, 1883, p. 487, a genus of fossil fishes. 



2Cuvier, Rfegne Animal, ed. 1, 1817, p. 272, Type, Sparus pagrus Linnaeus. 



3 Argyrops Swainson, Nat. Hist. Class. Fishes., vol. 11, 1839, p. 221 (spinifer). Argyrops spinifera 

 (Forslifi,!) occurs in Formosa, but is not known from Japan. 



