﻿HOLBROOK, FISHES OF FLORIDA, GEORGIA, &c. 57 



Description. — The body is elongated, slender, compressed, and thicker below than 

 above. The head is small, short, compressed, narrow between the eyes, with the 

 snout rounded and full, though not so broad as the occiput ; it is smooth above, though 

 covered with scales on the sides. The eye is very large, and is placed half the 

 diameter of its orbit from the snout, and two diameters from the angle of the opercle, 

 with its inferior margin below the median plane of the head, and its superior at the 

 facial outline. The posterior nostril is very near the eye, at the end of the superciliary 

 ridge. The mouth is small, hardly reaching to the eye ; the lower jaw is nearly as 

 long as the upper, though its teeth are received within it when the mouth is shut ; 

 both are armed, as well as the vomer and pharyngeal bones, with numerous, minute, 

 closely set, pointed, recurved teeth. 



The preopercle is so rounded as to present no angle ; the opercle is small, triangular 

 with its base before and its apex behind, and is armed with a slender, delicate spine ; 

 the subopercle and interopercle are large. 



The anterior dorsal fin begins in a line vertical with the anterior third of the pec- 

 toral, extends to the vent, and has ten spines ; the posterior is more elevated, and has 

 eleven rays. The pectoral arises a little behind the opercle, and extends to the root 

 of the ninth dorsal spine ; it is slender, and has twelve rays. The ventral begins at 

 some distance behind the origin of the pectoral fin, but extends beyond it; it is 

 long, slender, has one delicate spine and five soft rays. The anal begins slightly 

 behind the origin of the posterior dorsal fin, and terminates with it behind ; it has ten 

 soft rays. The caudal is long, narrow, rounded behind, and has fourteen rays. 



The lateral line runs along the superior fourth of the body to the end of the 

 anterior dorsal fin, whence it gradually descends to the median plane of the tail. 



Color. See Specific Characters. 



Dimensions. The length from the opercle to the tip of the tail is equal to four 

 heads ; the greatest elevation without the dorsal fin, to three-fourths of a head ; total 

 length three inches. 



Geographical Distribution. Florida and Georgia. 



General Remarks. This beautiful little species I have dedicated to Dr. John P. 

 Barratt, of Abbeville District, South Carolina, an excellent Naturalist, who has done 

 much for the advancement of Zoology and Botany. 



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