140 FISHES OF NOETH CAROLINA. 



Family AULOPID^. 



Bottom fishes, inhabiting moderate depths, similar to the Synodontidffi but 

 with maxillary well developed, gill-rakers long and slender, ctenoid scales, etc. 

 Only one genus represented in American waters. 



Genus CHLOROPHTHALMUS Bonaparte. Green-eyes. 

 Small smelt-like fishes, with terete, slightly compressed body, long head, 

 large mouth, maxillary dilated behind and extending beyond front of large eye, 

 projecting lower jaw, small teeth, short dorsal and anal fins, dorsal inserted 

 anterior to middle of body, ventrals under dorsal, needle-shaped gill-rakers and 

 silvery coloration. Three known American species, in Atlantic Ocean, one 

 recently detected off North Carolina. (Chlorophthalmus, green-eyed.) 



118. CHLOROPHTHALMUS OHALYBEIUS (Goode). 

 Green-eye. 



Hyphalonedrus chalybeiua Goode, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, iii, 1880, 484; Gulf Stream off Rhode 



Island, 85 to 167 fathoms. 

 .Chlorophthalmus chalyheius, Goode & Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 1896, 60, fig. 71. 



Diagnosis. — Depth a little less than .16 length; head .25 length; eye .33 head and 4 times 

 interorbital space; snout .25 head; maxillary broad, wider posteriorly, extending to opposite 

 ■pupil; mandible protruding beyond snout; scales pectinate on margin, in regular rows, 48 in 

 lateral series, 12 in crosswise series; dorsal rays 11, the fin inserted midway between end of 

 snout and adipose fin; adipose dorsal over middle of anal; anal rays 8, anal base as long as 

 snout; caudal forked; pectorals long, falcate, twice length of lower jaw; ventrals under middle 

 of dorsaf. Color: grayish with discreet brown mottlings, the scales metallic silvery, {chaly- 

 heius, steel blue.) 



This species has heretofore been known only from the Gulf Stream in water 

 of moderate depth. It is entitled to a place in the North Carolina fauna from 

 having been taken by the steamer Fish-Hawk in dredgings off Cape Lookout in 

 August, 1902; 10 specimens, the largest 2.5 inches long, were secured. 



Order HAPLOMI. The Pikes and Pike-like Fishes. 



In this order the fin-rays are soft, the single dorsal fin is placed more or less 

 posteriorly (in some genera close to caudal), the ventral fins are abdominal, and 

 the pectoral fins are placed low. The body is elongate and covered with cycloid 

 scales which extend also on the head. There is no lateral line. The terminal 

 mouth contains teeth, and communicates by a duct with the air-bladder. 

 Among the bony characters are the absent mesocoracoid; the separate hypercora- 

 coid and hypocoracoid,- with developed actinosts; the shoulder girdle joined to 

 the skull by a post-temporal; distinct phar3Tigeal bones; and well developed 

 opercles. 



Of the 4 American families, 3 are strictly fresh-wateir and the other is 

 largely so. Among the members of one family are some of the largest and most 

 predaceous of all fresh-water fishes, and among the members of another family 

 are the smallest American fresh-water fishes. 



