SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



237 



jaws, vomer, and palatines; opercular margin with 2 flat points covered with 

 skin; preopercular margin entire; gill-rakers long and toothed; scales large; 

 dorsal spines 10, the middle spines rather long; anal fin smaller than dorsal, the 

 rays longer; caudal and pectorals rounded. A single small species. (Meso- 

 gonistius, middle-angled dorsal.) 



205. MESOGONISTIUS OH^TODON (Baird). 



Black-banded Sun-fisli. 



Pomotis ckcelodon Baird, Ninth Smithsonian Report, 324. 1854; Cedar Swamp Creek, N. J. 

 Mesogordatiua chatodon, .Tordan & Evermann, 1896, 995, pi. clviii, fig. 423. 



Fig. 104. Black-banded Sun-fish. Mesogordstvus chcetodon. 



Diagnosis. — Body rather short, much compressed, depth contained 1 .7 to 2 times in 

 total length; head .33 total length; eye large, .33 length of head; mouth small; gill-rakers short, 

 10 or 11 on lower arm of first arch; lateral line unbroken; scales in lateral series about 

 28, in transverse series 14; fins large; dorsal rays x,10; anal rays iii,12. Color (of specimens 

 from Wilimngton): body dirty white or pale straw color, often with silvery purplish 

 reflections, marked by 6 to 8 black vertical bars; the first of these, through the eye, is the 

 narrowest, most intense, and most sharply defined, the part below the eye being jet black 

 and usually the most conspicuous part of the fish; second bar anterior to pectorals, represented 

 on opercle by a black spot; third bar extends on spinous dorsal, forming a bluish black blotch 

 on first three interradial membranes and a similar central stripe on ventrals; fourth bar at 

 front of soft dorsal; fifth bar under posterior edge of soft dorsal, last bar at base of caudal;' 

 fourth spinous dorsal membrane with white pigment, sometimes orange in male; soft dorsal with 

 about 5 transverse rows of dark brown spots on rays; caudal similarly marked; anal with dark 

 edge and about 4 longitudinal rows of dark brown spots; anal in some specimens with a purplish 

 suffusion and spots; pectorals colorless, unmarked; opercle and posterior edge of orbit with 

 brilhant golden refiections; iris anterior to black bar orange, posterior section white. Length, 

 to 3 inches, (chcttodon, a genus of salt-water fishes many of which resemble this species in 

 coloration.) 



