NEW SPECIES OF EXOCETUS. 9 



toral fins, sufficient when extended to support the 

 body for some seconds in the air. For the rest, the 

 head and body is scaly, they have likewise a carina- 

 ted longitudinal range of scales as in the Belonse and 

 Hemiramphi, &c. The head is flattened above and at 

 the sides ; the eyes are large, the maxillaries without 

 pedicles and forming alone the border of the upper 

 jaw; both jaws are furnished with small pointed 

 teeth, and the os pharynx with teeth in pairs. 

 They have ten rays in the gills ; the natatory 

 bladder is very large, and the intestines straight and 

 without ccecum ; the upper lobe of the caudal fin is 

 the shortest. Their flight is never very long, and 

 they elevate themselves in order to escape the pur- 

 suit of voracious fish ; they immediately fall, because 

 their wings merely serve the purpose of parachutes ; 

 the birds also pursue them in the air, as the fish do in 

 the water. They are found in all the temperate seas. 



Exocetus *fasciatus. 



Abdominal fins long and broad, somewhat trun- 

 cated, scarcely attaining to the caudal ; anal and 

 dorsal, straight, low, and almost equal ; pectoral fins 

 not touching the anal ; brown bands on the pectoral 

 and ventral fins ; the two first rays of the pectoral 

 fins shorter ; head destitute of beard. 



Description. — The total length of this small spe- 

 cies was three inches. The body is elongated and en- 



B 



