SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



289 



Diagnosis. — Depth of body .37 length, back somewhat elevated; length of head equal 

 to depth; a small narrow patch of teeth on middle of tongue, usual teeth in jaws; maxiUary not 

 extending to front of eye; snout long and pointed, contained 2.6 in head; eye small, contained 

 3 times in snout and 6 times in length of head; interorbital space equal to diameter of eye; 

 gUl-rakers .5 length of eye, 8 on long arm of first arch; scales in lateral series about 67, in trans- 

 verse series 10+17, 7 rows on cheeks and about 9 on opercles; dorsal fin low, the rays x,14, 

 fourth spine longest, ninth and tenth soft rays longest; anal fin angulated, the rays iii,8; caudal 

 broad, forked; pectorals extending about to anal Color: above lateral line dark green with 

 obhque lines of blue spots; sides bluish; beUy white tinged with red; back and sides with 6 to 

 8 dark narrow vertical stripes wider than spaces between them; head bronze green, darker 

 above, a pearly streak under eye from snout to giU-opening; a blue streak from eye to nostrils; 

 iris bright red; a small, persistent lateral blotch immediately above lateral line under first 

 dorsal soft rays, anal, caudal, pectorals, and ventrals brick red, the caudal with a narrow 

 black margin; dorsal yellowish with reddish jnarkings. (analis, relating to anal fin, which 

 has long rays.) 



Fig. 128. Mutton-pish. Imtianits analis. 



This snapper is common from the east coast of Florida to Brazil, and is a food 

 fish of some importance, reaching a weight of 25 pounds. Stragglers have been 

 found at Woods Hole, Mass., and may be looked for at all intervening points. It 

 has been taken on the North Carolina coast at Beaufort, where 10 small specimens 

 were seined at Bird Shoal and Uncle Israel Island in the summer of 1902. 



Family HiEMULID^. The Grunts. 



A numerous family of small or moderate-sized carnivorous fishes inhabiting 

 temperate and tropical shores, important as food in Florida, West Indies, and 

 elsewhere. They are related to the snappers on one hand and the porgies on the 

 other. Body outline varying from oblong to ovate; head large, the skull with 

 conspicuous crests; mouth variable, terminal, low, horizontal; premaxillaries 

 protractile; maxillary slipping under margin of preorbital, no supplemental bone; 

 jaw teeth pointed, none canine, no teeth on tongue, vomer, or palatines; opercle 

 destitute of spines, preopercle entire or serrate; gill-arches 4; gill-membranes not 

 united, free from isthmus; gill-rakers in moderate number; branchiostegals 6 or 

 7; body covered with adherent ctenoid or cycbid scales; sides of head scaly; 



