328 REPORT OF XEW JERSEY STATE :\IUSEUM. 

 Family SCI^NID^. 

 The Croakers. 



Body compressed, more or less elongate. Head prominent. 

 Mouth small or large. Teeth in one or more series, outer some- 

 times enlarged. Canines often present. No incisor or molar 

 teeth. No teeth on vomer, palatines, pterygoids or tongue. Max- 

 illary without supplemental bone, slipping under free edge of 

 preorbital, which is usually broad. Premaxillaries protractile, 

 but not very freely movable. Chin usually with pores, sometimes 

 with barbels. Nostrils double. Preopercle serrate or not. 

 Opercle usually ending in 2 flat points. Gill-membranes separate, 

 free from isthmus. Gills 4, a slit behind fourth. Gill-rakers 

 present. Pseudobranchise usually large and present. Branchi- 

 ostegals 7. Lower pharyngeals separate or united, often en- 

 larged, teeth conic or molar. Air-vessel usually large, com- 

 plicated, or sometimes wanting. Ear-bones or otoliths very large. 

 Suborbital bones without a backward projecting stay. Pyloric 

 coeca usuall}^ rather few. Body covered with rather thin scales, 

 usually more or less ctenoid. Head covered with scales, bones of 

 skull cavernous, mucif erous system highly developed, and when 

 flesh is removed surface of skull very uneven. Lateral line con- 

 tinuous, usually more or less concurrent with back and extending 

 on caudal fin. Dorsal fin deeply notched or divided into 2 fins, 

 rayed fin longer and spines depressible into a more or less perfect 

 groove. Anal with I or H spines, never more than H. Caudal 

 usually not forked. Pectorals normal. Ventrals I, 5, thoracic, 

 below or behind pectorals. 



Fishes of sandy-shores in all warm seas, some few in fresh- 

 water, but none in deep water or among rocks. They often reach 

 a large size and are valued as food. Their habits are carnivorous, 

 and some are of interest as game fishes. IMost species make a 

 peculiar noise, called croaking, drumming, grunting or snoring, 

 which sound is supposed to be caused by forcing air from the air- 

 vessel into one of the lateral horns. 



