THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 267 



Family RACHYCENTRID^. 



The Sergeant Fishes. 



Body elongate, fusiform, subcyHndrical. Peduncle moderate. 

 Head rather broad, low, pike-like, bones above appearing through 

 thin skin. Mouth rather wide, nearly horizontal. Maxillary 

 reaching about to front of eye. Both jaws, vomer, palatines and 

 tongue with bands of short sharp teeth. Lower jaw longer. 

 Premaxillaries not protractile. Preopercle unarmed. Gill-rakers 

 rather short, stout. Branchiostegals 7. No air-vessel. Pyloric 

 coeca branched. Vertebrae 12 -|- 13^25. Body covered with 

 small smooth adherent scales. First dorsal of 8 low stout equal 

 free spines, each depressible in a groove. Soft dorsal long, rather 

 low, somewhat falcate, similar to a nearly opposite anal. Latter 

 with II weak spines, I free from skin. Caudal forked and strong. 

 No keel and no finlets. Pectoral moderate, placed low. Ventral 

 I, 5, thoracic. 



A single species on our coast. A large, strong, voracious 

 shore-fish in all warm seas. 



Genus Rachyckntron Kaup. 



The Sergeant Fishes. 



Rachycentron canadus (Linnaeus). 



Crab Eater. 



Head about 3%; depth 8; D. VIII, I, in, 27; A. iv, 20; 

 mandible 2}^ in head; first branched dorsal ray 2j^ ; first 

 branched anal ray 2j^ ; pectoral 1}^; ventral ly^; least depth 

 of caudal peduncle 3^; snout 2^ in head measured from its 

 own tip; eye sH J maxillary 2^/^. Body very long, slender, tail 

 long and tapering but gradually. Head long, pointed, upper pro- 

 file nearly straight. Snout long and slender. Eye small, rounded 

 and about median in side of head. Mouth long, curved a little, 

 and mandible projecting. Maxillary reaching front rim of pupil. 



