FISHES OF NEW YORK 435 



row, free; teeth minute, on jaws, tongue, vomer, and palatines; 

 gill rakers long and slender; spines of fins usually weak, more or 

 less filamentous in the young; free anal spines immovable, some- 

 times obsolete in the adult; soft fins falcate, much elevated; no 

 finlets; head naked; scales minute; lateral line wholly unarmed. 

 Coloration silvery. Tropical seas. Notwithstanding its extra- 

 ordinary form, this genus differs in no important regard from 



€ar a nx . 



218 Selene vomer (Linnaeus) 



LooMown; Moonfish 



Zeus vomer Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 266, 1758, America. 



Argyreiosus vomer Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 566, 1803; De Kay, N. Y, 



Fauna, Fishes, 124, pi. 75, fig. 238, 1842; GtJntheb, Cat. Fish. Brit. 



Mus. II, 458, 1860; Gill, Proe. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 437, 1862; Bean, 



19th Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. 256, 1890. 

 Argyriosus vomer Goode &, Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 16, 1879. 

 Selene argentea Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 560, pi. 9, fig. 2, 1803, (adult).. 

 Zeus capillaris Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 383, pi. II, fig. 2, 



1815, (young), New York. 

 Zens rostratus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 384, pi. II, fig. 1, 



1815, (young). New York. 

 Zeus geomeMcus Mitchill, Aij. Month. Mag. II, 245, Feb. 1818, (adult). 



New York. 

 Argyreiosus capillaris De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 125, pi. 27, fig. 82, 1842, 



New York. 

 Selene vomer Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 177, 1833; 



Brevoort, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. V, 68, pi. 4, 1853; Jordan & 



Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 439, 1883; Jordan & Evermann, 



Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 936, 1896, pi. CXLIV, fig. 398, (young), pi. 



CXLV, fig. 393a, adult, 1900; Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 363, 



1897, 52d Ann. Kept. N. Y. State Mus. 103, 1900; Smith, Bull. U. S. 



F. C. XVII, 98, 1898. 

 Selene gallus Bean, Bull. U. S. F. C. VII, 139, 1888. 



The depth of the body is contained one and one half times in 

 the length; while the length of the head is contained three times 

 in the length of the body. Diameter of eye, length of opercle^ 

 and distance from eye to profile about equal; eye twice in maxil- 

 lary, two and one half in preorbital; mandibles A^ery deep, the 

 dentary bones thin, approximate; one or two of the dorsal spines 

 greatly elongate and filamentous in the young, short in the 

 adult; ventrals variable in length, usuallj^ as long as the eye 

 in the adult, variously elongate in partly grown specimens; the 



