284 Cavallas and Pampanos 
better flavor. The harvest-fish, Peprilus paru, frequently 
taken on our Atlantic coast, is known by its very high fins. 
Fic. 220.—Harvest-fish, Peprilus paru (Linneus). Virginia. 
Stromateoides argenteus, a much larger fish than any of these, 
is a very important species on the coasts of China. 
Psenopsis anomala takes the place of our butter-fishes in 
Japan, and much resembles them in appearance as in flavor. 
To the Stromateid@ we also refer the black ruff of Europe, 
Centrolophus niger, an interesting deep-sea fish rarely straying 
to our coast. Allied to it is the black rudder-fish, Paltnurich- 
thys perciformis, common on the Massachusetts coast, where 
it is of some value as a food-fish. A specimen in a live-box 
once drifted to the coast of Cornwall, where it was taken unin- 
jured, though doubtless hungry. Other species of ruff- and 
rudder-fish are recorded from various coasts. 
Allied to the Stromateid@ are numerous fossil forms. Omo- 
soma sachelalme and other species occur in the Cretaceous at 
Mount Lebanon. Platycormus germanus, with ctenoid scales 
