HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 427 



drawing is made, I am indebted to John L. Tucker, Esq., formerly of the Tremont 

 House of this city. 



Previous to the appearance of Dekay's Keport, I supposed this species to be Dr. 

 Mitchill's M broccus^ and thus called it in the Proceedings of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, p. 84 (Sept 1842). 



Dekay described it as a new species, under the specific name of setifer. As, 

 however, this name had been previously applied to another species of this genus 

 by Bennett, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Part I. p. 112, 

 1830, I have felt compelled to substitute another. 



Massachusetts, Stoker. New York, Dekat. 



GENUS 11. ALUTEEES, Cuv. 



An elongated body, covered with small and scarcely visible granules ; a single 

 spine in the first dorsal ; the chief character is the pelvis, which is completely 

 hidden under the skin, and is without that spinous projection observed in the 

 other Balistes. 



Aluteres cuspicauda, De'kay, 



The Sharp-tailed File-fish 



(Plate XXXY. Fia. 2.) 



Balistes cuspicauda, Sharp-tailed File-Jish,'Mi'icix., Amer. Month Mag., ii p. 326. 



Aluteres monoceros, Unicorn File Jish, (Bloch,) Storer, Report, p. 175. 



Aluteres cuspicauda, Long-tailed Umcorn-Jish, Dekat, Eeport, p. 338, pi. 59, fig. 192. 



<« *' " " Storer, Mem. Amer, Acad., New Series, ii. p. 497. 



« '< " " " Synopsis, p. 245. 



Color. Coppery brown, with spots of pale bluish slate and of brassy yellow from 

 ^Q eyes to the tail and back half-way down the sides, arranged in rather regular 

 series. Head, back, and throat of a dark olive-brown; lower part of sides and 

 abdomen lighter. A pale greenish-blue tint on the cheeks and opercles. Irides 

 brassy yellow. Dorsal spine dark. The last two thirds of the membrane of the 

 caudal fin of a dusky brown, with the tips of the rays yellowish. The dorsal, pec- 

 torals, and anal almost colorless. 



Description. Body elongated, compressed laterally. Its greatest height, which is 

 just back of the dorsal spine, is equal to one third its entire length; its height 

 at the base of the caudal rays is equal to about one fourteenth its length. Between 

 the spine and the dorsal fin the back is nearly straight. The length of the head 



