684 NEW YORK STATE MU'SEiUM 



bony, strongly keeled; two serrated, knifelike appendages at 

 base of tail; first dorsal of four or five rather high flexible spines, 

 the first one or two spines nearly free from the others; an 

 immovable spine between the dorsals; anal and second dorsal 

 short, of slender rays; caudal small, lunate; pectoral fins divided 

 to the base into two parts,^ the anterior portion about as long 

 as the head, of about six rays, closely connected; the posterior 

 and larger portion more than twice length of head, reaching 

 nearly to caudal in the adult, much shorter in the young; these 

 rays very slender, simple, wide apart at tip; ventral rays I, 4, 

 the long fins pointed, their bases close together, the inner rays 

 shortest; air bladder with two lateral parts, each with a large 

 muscle; pyloric caeca numerous; vertebrae 9+13=22. Warm 

 seas; the adult able to move in the air like the true fiying fish, 

 but for shorter distances. Two species known, one of them 

 (C. spinarella) East Indian. 



338 Cephalacanthus volitans (Linnaeus) 



Flying Gurnard; Flying Robin 



Trigla volitans Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 302, 1758. 



Polynemus sexradiatus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, pi. IV, 



fig. 10, 1815; Am. Month. Mag. II, 323, March, 1818. 

 Dactylopterus volitans Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 117, 



1829; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 49, pi. 17, fig. 46; Gunthee, Cat. 



Fish. Brit. Mus. 11, 221, 1860. 

 Cephalacanthus volitans Bean, Bull. U. S. F. C. VII, 136, 1888; Bull. Am. 



Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 371, 1897; H.' M. Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 



106, 1898; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. II, 2183, 



1898; IV, pi. COCXXIII, fig. 778, 190O. 



Body elongate, subquadrangular, tapering to caudal, its depth 

 about one sixth of total length; profile blunt, the head being 

 quadrangular in shape; mouth rather small, the lower jaw in- 

 cluded; granular teeth in jaws; no teeth on vomer and pala- 

 tines; eye large, its diameter being contained about three and 

 one half times in length of head; bones of top of head, pre- 

 orbitals, and suborbitals, forming a shield, the nuchal part on 

 each side being produced backward in a bony ridge and ending 

 in a strong spine which reaches to the fourth or fifth dorsal 

 spine; another spine extends backward from the preopercle 

 past ventrals; pectorals in adults reaching almost to caudal, 



