THE FISHES OF PORTO RICO. 
105 
anal rather long, similar, posterior, with 23 to 28 rays each; caudal small, rhombic, the middle rays 
longest but not produced into a filament; ventrals abdominal, of 6 rays, all articulated ; pectorals broad , ' 
rounded, the space in front of them scaly. First four vertebrae elongated. Two pyloric caeca. 
A single genus with two species, found in tropical seas. 
Genus 38. AUL0ST0MUS Lacepede. 
Characters of this genus included with those of the family. 
a. Base of soft dorsal and anal not black; each fin with a black band parallel with Its base. 
b. Eye 2 to 2.5 in postorbital part of head; ground-color reddish; silvery lateral streaks, not all below lateral line. 
maculatus , 55 
bb. Eye 3.5 in postorbital part of head; ground-color brown; lateral silvery streaks all below lateral line cinereus 
55. Aulostomus maculatus Valenciennes. Trumpet-fish; “ Trompetero." 
Head 3; eye 2 to 2.5 in postorbital part of head; D. x-23; A. 25; V. 6. Lower jaw prominent, 
keeled, with a small barbel at symphysis; premaxillary slender, maxillary broad; triangular patches 
of minute teeth on lower jaw, vomer, palatines, gill-arches, and pharyngeals. Intestinal canal short; 
two pyloric caeca. 
Color, olivaceous, with one or two series of brown or blue dots along each side of the back; another 
irregular series from the preoperculum along each side of the belly to anal fin ; three or four silvery lines 
on each side of abdomen, replaced on head by irregular oblique streaks; anterior part of dorsal and anal 
with a horizontal black band, parallel with base of fin but remote from it; caudal fin with usually two 
round black spots; ventral fins plain, spotted. (Gunther.) 
Found in the Caribbean Sea, north to southern Florida; rather common southward; apparently 
not common about Porto Rico, as only one small specimen was obtained. This was seined in Boqueron 
Bay January 26. 
Aulostoma maculatum Valenciennes, in Cuvier’s Hist. Poissons, pi. 92, fig. 2, about 1845. 
Aulostoma coloratum Muller & Troschel, in Schomburgk’s Hist. Barbados, 673, 1848, Barbados. 
Aulostomus uiaculatus, Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 754, 1896. 
Family XXVI. FISTULARIID2E. The Cornet-fishes. 
Body extremely elongate, much depressed, broader than deep. Scaleless, but having bony 
plates present on various parts of body, mostly covered by skin. Head very long, anterior bones of 
skull much produced, forming a long tube, which terminates in the narrow mouth; this tube formed by 
symplectic, proethmoid, metapterygoid, mesopterygoid, quadrate, palatines, vomer, and mesethmoid. 
Both jaws, and usually vomer and palatines also, with minute teeth; membrane uniting bones of tube 
below very lax, so that tube is capable of much dilation. Post-temporal coossified with the cranium. 
Branchiostegals 5 to 7; gills 4, a slit behind fourth. Gill-membranes separate, free from isthmus. 
Gillrakers obsolete. Basibranchial elements wanting. Pseudobranchiae present. Air-bladder large. 
Spinous dorsal entirely absent; soft dorsal short, posterior, somewhat elevated; anal fin opposite it, 
and similar; caudal fin forked, middle rays produced into a long filament; pectoral small, with a 
broad base, preceded by a smooth area as in the Gasterosteidx ; pectoral ossicles 3; interclavicles greatly 
lengthened; supraclavicles very small; ventral fins very small, wide apart, abdominal (through partial 
atrophy of the girdle, by which they lose connection with the interclavicles), far in advance of the 
dorsal, composed of 6 soft rays. Pyloric caeca few; intestine short. Vertebrae very numerous 
(4 -f- 44 to 49 + 28 to 33), the first four very long. 
Fishes of tropical seas, related to the sticklebacks in structure, but with prolonged snout and 
different ventral fins. A single genus, with three species. 
