THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 269 



Family STROMATEID^. 



The Fiatolas. 



Body compressed and more or less elevated. Profile anteriorly 

 blunt and rounded. Mouth small. Premaxillaries not protrac- 

 tile. Dentition feeble, none on vomer and palatines. Opercular 

 bones smooth, not serrate. Preopercle entire and serrate. Gill- 

 membranes free or not. Gills 4, a slit behind fourth. Gill- 

 rakers rather long. Pseudobranchiae present. Pharyngeals little 

 developed. Usually no air-vessel. Pyloric coeca commonly 

 numerous. Vertebrae 30 to 36. CEsophagus armed with numer- 

 ous horny barbed or hooked teeth. Body covered with small or 

 minute cycloid scales. Cheeks scaly. Lateral line well developed. 

 Dorsal fin single, long, with spines few or weak, often obsolete. 

 Anal fin long, similar to soft dorsal, usually with HI small spines 

 which are often depressible in a fold of skin. Caudal well forked. 

 Ventral I, 5, thoracic in young, but reduced or altogether wanting 

 in adult. 



Fishes usually of small size, found in most warm seas, and 

 many of them valued as food. 



Key to the genera. 



a. Dorsal and anal well elevated anteriorly, lobes falcate ; body suborbicular, 



no pores on side of back above lateral line. seserinus 



aa. Dorsal and anal moderately elevated anteriorly, anterior lobes scarcely 



falcate ; body elliptical ; a series of large wide-set pores above lateral line. 



PORONOTUS 



Genus SesErinus Quoy and Gaimard. 



The Harvest Fishes. 



Seserinus paru (Linnaeus). 



Plate 35- 

 Rudder Fish. 



Distinguished from the next chiefly by its suborbicular form 

 and long falcate dorsal and anal. 



