MITCHILL ON THE FISHES OF NEW-YORK. 365 



in a bottle. The swallower seems to be a mackerel, and is really 

 smaller than the fish he forced down his throat. The effort cost him 

 his life, by bursting the stomach and the belly; and two creatures are 

 shown as proofs of the fact. 



STROMATEUS. BKOAD SHINER, 



Generic character. 



Head compressed. Teeth both in jaws and palate. Body rhombic- 

 ovate, compressed, lubricous. 



1. Cryptous broad shiner. (Stromateus cryptosus.) With a row of 

 holes on each side of the back. A curious and beautiful fish, eight 

 inches long, and five deep. Body flat laterally. Head rounded in with 

 the body. Mouth small. Jaws have a fine serrated margin. Tongue 

 distinct, smooth, and spotted. Palate and inside of the mouth also 

 spotted. Gill openings narrow. A small spine just behind the vent. 

 From its blunt head the body increases to the aforesaid width, and then 

 becomes very narrow near the tail. 



Dorsal fin reaches from the top of the back almost to the tail ; anal 

 from the neighbourhood of the before-mentioned spine to the root of 

 the tail. 



Three lateral lines ; middle one straight, running from the upper 

 part of the gill opening to the middle of the tail. The upper one forms 

 a curve upward, the extremities of which almost touch the extremities 

 of the straight line, resembling an arch and its chord. The lower 

 one is about equally curved downward, and its ends approach about 

 as near to the middle line. Middle and lower lines smooth, while the 

 upper one is roughened with scales. Few or no other scales on the 

 skin. 



