FISHES OP NEW YORK 433 



western Mexico it attains to the length of 3 feet and is used for 

 food. At Woods Hole Mass., it is usually uncommon, but some- 

 times abundant, appearing about the middle of June and re- 

 maining till November. 



De Kay described a specimen from Long Island sound, the only 

 one observed by him. One was taken in a pound net at Islip 

 Aug. 18, 1898, by W. F. Clock. The threadfish enters Gravesend 

 bay occasionally in summer. In captivity it will not endure a 

 water temperature much below 60°. 



Genus vomer Cuv. & Val. 

 This genus is closely allied to a r a n x , from which it differs 

 only in its distortion of form, and in its weak teeth and very low 

 fins. Body broad, ovate, very strongly compressed, all the out- 

 lines sharply trenchant; head very gibbous above the eyes, its 

 interior profile vertical; lateral line strongly arched, its pos- 

 terior part with very weak shields; scales minute, rudimentary; 

 «oft dorsal and anal extremely low, not falcate. Young much 

 -deeper in form than the adult, all the fins higher, resembling 

 :S e 1 e n e . Warm seas. 



217 Vomer setipinnis (Mitchill) 

 Horsefish; Moonfish 



^eus setapinnis Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 384, pi. I, fig. 9, 

 1815, New York. 



Vomer hrownii Cuviek & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 189, pi. 256, 

 1833, New York & West Indies; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 127, 

 pi. 25, fig. 78, 1842. 



^rgyreiosus setipinffiis Gunther, Gat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 459, 1860. 



Selene setipinnis Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 440, 1883. 



Tomer setipinnis Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 436, 1862; Jordan & Gil- 

 bert, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 934, 1896, pi. CXLIV, fig. 392, 1900; 

 Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 362, 1897; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. 0. 

 XVII, 98, 1898. 



Body oblong, rhombic, less elevated than in Selene vomer; 

 profile anteriorly nearly vertical, highest above eye, snout some- 

 "what protruding, belly mostly arched in young; mouth oblique; 

 maxillary reaching vertical from front of orbit. The depth of 

 i:he body is contained twice in the length in an adult but only 

 :from one and one fourth to one and three fourths in the young. 

 'The length of the body is three and one fourth times the length 



