The Redhorses 



some value as a food-fish. It occurs in the Great Lakes region 

 and south to North Carolina and Texas, being most common 

 westward. 



GENUS MOXOSTOMA RAFINESQUE 



The Redhorses 



Body more or less elongate, sometimes nearly terete, usually 

 more or less compressed; head variously long or short; eye 

 usually large; suborbital bones very narrow; fontanelle always 

 open; mouth varying much in size, always inferior in position, 

 the mandible horizontal, or nearly so; lips usually well developed, 

 the form of the lower varying, usually with a slight median 

 fissure, but never deeply cleft; lips with transverse plicae, rarely 

 broken up into papillse; jaws without cartilaginous sheath; oper- 

 cular bones moderately developed, nearly smooth; isthmus broad; 

 gillrakers weak, moderately long; pharyngeal bones rather weak, 

 as in Cafosioi/ins, the teeth rather coarser and strongly com- 

 pressed, the lower 5 or 6 more strongly than the others, which 

 rapidly diminish in size upward, each with a prominent internal 

 cusp; scales large, more or less quadrate in form, nearly equal 

 in size over the body, and not especially crowded anywhere; 

 lateral line well developed, straight or anteriorly curved; fins 

 well developed, the dorsal inserted about midway of the body, 

 its first ray usually rather nearer snout than caudal; anal fin 

 short and high, usually emarginate in the male; caudal fin 

 deeply forked; air-bladder with three chambers. 



Sexual characters little marked, the males during the spawn- 

 ing season with the lower fins reddened and the anal rays 

 somewhat swollen and tuberculate. 



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