64 



I have some hesitation in referring the Bermuda Mullet to this spe- 

 cies, though it appears to be identical with that taken at Bahia Blanco 

 and Monte Video by Darwin and described by Jenyns.* Poey consid- 

 ers his Mugil lebranchnsf separated from this species by characters of 

 doubtful value. 



BELOMD^. 



The Hound-fish of the fishermen is a Belone; but as I could get no 

 specimens for careful examination, it is not possible to say to which of 

 the nineteen West India species it belongs, or whether two or three 

 species are not confounded under the same name. 



SCOMBERESOOID^. 



HEMIRHAMPHUS PLEII, Valenciennes. 

 Gar-fish. 



Eemirhamphus Pleii, Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss. xis, 21, 1846.— GtJNTHEE, Cat. 

 Fish. Brit. Mus. vi, 268.— Cope, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. Phila. 1870, 481. 



Common ; recorded also from various points in the West Indies and 

 from Bahia. The Gar-fish occurs in enormous schools, and is seined in 

 quantity for the market. I observed two sizes, the smallest averaging 

 eight inches, the larger twenty inches. The fish of different sizes swam 

 in separate schools. 



The name Gar, applied so indiscriminately to fishes with long slender 



beaks, is probably the old Saxon word gar, which means a weapon, a 



lance. The name Half-beak usually given to fishes of this family is much 



more appropriate. 



EXOCCETUS EXILIENS, Gmelin. 



Exoccetiis exiliens, Gmelin, Inuii^, Syst. Nat. 1, 178«, 1400. — Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. 

 Poiss. xix, 1846, 114. — Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Araericana, iii, 129. — GtJN- 

 THER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. vi, 1861, 291. — Gill, in Baird's Rep, on Sea Fisheries 

 of Southern New England, 809. 



Exocoetus fasciatus, Lesueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. ii, 1821, 8, pi. iv, f. 2. 



A single specimen was brought me March 1 by some negro fishermen 

 who had caught it in Hamilton Harbor by holding a tin pail ("kettle") 

 under it when it leaped from the water. I kept it alive for some hours, 



* Zool. Voyage H. M. S. Beagle, Fish, 1842, 80. 



tMemorias sobre la Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba * * * ii, 1861, 260, tab. 

 18, f . 3 ; Rep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, ii, 1868, 388. 



