454 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



r 



Jordan and Eivermann, in Bulletin 47, U. S. National Museum, 

 p. 953, state that tlie small dolphin is not recorded from the 

 coast of the United States; but that it inhabits the open At- 

 lantic and occurs rarely in the West Indies. De Kay, however, 

 described a dolphin, above mentioned, which appears to agree 

 with the published descriptions of the Coryphaena equi- 

 setis Linnaeus; and there is no reason to suppose that this 

 pelagic species does not occasionally visit our shores. It is true 

 that all the young dolphins from the New England and New 

 York coasts examined by me belong to the larger species; but 

 materials for study are scarce, and it is unwise to base a con- 

 clusion on insufficient investigation. 



Family cE>j'rRoivOFH:iDj^E: 



Rudderfishes 

 Genus palinurichthys Bleeker 

 Body oblong, ovate, moderately compressed; profile very blunt 

 and convex; mouth moderate; maxillary narrow, with a small 

 supplemental bone; premaxillaries protractile, little movable; 

 jaws nearly equal, each with about one series of small, slender 

 teeth; no teeth on vomer or palatines; preoperculum, interoper- 

 culum, and suboperculum finely serrated; gill rakers long; gill 

 membranes separate, free from the isthmus; scales small, 

 smooth, larger, thicker, and more adherent than in Stroma- 

 teus ; cheeks scaly; fins rather low; dorsal fin long, preceded 

 by six to eight short, subequal, rather strong spines," the last 

 ones connected by membrane, the others nearly free, all much 

 lower than the soft rays; anal fin similar but shorter, preceded 

 by three spines, which, like the dorsal spines, are nearly em- 

 bedded in thick skin; vertical fins densely scaly toward their 

 bases; caudal fin emarginate; caudal peduncle stout; ventral fins 

 large, thoracic, I, 5; pectoral fins moderate, rounded, or falcate. 



227 Palinurichthys perciformis (Mitchill) 

 RiiMerfish; Black Pilot 



Coryphaena perciformis Mitchill, Am. Month. Mag. II, 244, Feb. 1818, New 



York Harbor. 

 Palinurus perciformis De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fisbes, 118, pi. 24, fig. 75, 1842; 



Stoeek, Hist. Fisb. Mass. 74, pi. XIII, fig. 3, 1867. 



