274 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE :\IUSEUM. 



I have no examples of this fish, except one in the coUection of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, which was pro- 

 cured in the Philadelphia market. It may have been taken some- 

 where on the New Jersey coast, though there is no evidence to 

 prove this. 



Coryphcuna hippurus Bean, Bull. Am. ]\Ius. N. H.. IX, 1897. p. 



363- 



Coryphcena leseurii Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 811. 



Family APHREDODERID-S:^ 



The Pirate Perches. 



Body oblong, elevated at base of dorsal, and compressed behind. 

 Caudal peduncle deep. Head thick, depressed and profile con- 

 cave. Mouth moderate, somewhat oblique, lower jaw projecting, 

 and maxillary reaching anterior border of eye. Teeth in villi- 

 form bands on jaws, vomer, palatines and pterygoids. Premaxil- 

 laries not protractile, and maxillaries small, without evident sup- 

 plemental bone. Preopercle and preorbital with free edges 

 sharply serrate. Opercle with spine. Bones of skull somewhat 

 cavernous. Gill-membranes slightly joined to isthmus anteriorly. 

 Gills 4, a small slit behind fourth. Gill-rakers tubercle-like, den- 

 tate. Pseudobranchiae obsolete. Lower pharyngeals narrow, 

 separate, with villiform teeth. Branchiostegals obsolete. Sides 

 of head scaly. Scales moderate, strongly ctenoid, adherent. 

 Lateral line imperfect or wanting. Dorsal fin single, median, 

 high, spines III or IV and rapidly graduated, first ver}- short. 

 Anal small, with III slender spines. A^entrals thoracic, without 

 distinct spine, and rays usual 7. Caudal rounded. \^ent always 

 anterior, its position varying with age from just behind ventrals 

 in young to below preopercle in adult. Air-vessel simple, large, 

 adherent to walls of abdomen. Vertebrae 14 + 15. Pyloric coeca 

 about 12. 



A single genus with one species confined to the United States. 



^ Percopsis guttatiis Agassiz has been credited to the Delaware River by 

 writers with reference to its capture by Dr. Charles C. Abbott. However, 

 Dr. Abbott tells me that he has never taken this fish in the Delaware, and 

 also that he has never seen a specimen from any part of the same river sj^s- 

 tem. The confusion he attributes to the remark which he made that Baird 

 had reported it from Easton, Pa. 



