498 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
is equal to one third the length of the fish. The facial angle is oblique, grad- 
ually sloping from the dorsalspine to the tip of the snout. The mouth is turned 
upwards. The teeth are sharp, pointed. The eyes are large and circular. The 
nostril is situated just in front of the anterior superior margin of the orbit. The 
branchial aperture is oblique. 
The dorsal spine is short and serrated, having at its posterior base, connected 
by a membrane, a minute rudimentary spine. ` 
The dorsal fin commences on the anterior half of the body; its central rays are 
the highest. 
The pectoral fins are situated on a line beneath the eyes. 
The anal fin commences opposite the dorsal, and terminates posterior to it. 
The middle caudal rays are the highest; and all the rays, except the two outer, 
are filamentous. 
Length, eight inches. 
The fin rays are as follows, in four specimens : — 
D. 3,0X I0 A: Sk C. I2. 
D. 2, 36. P.12.9:1 14 Av 86. (12 
D. 2, Sh F. 15: A. 40. C. 12. 
D. 2,98. P 15 Ay 42. C. 12. 
Remarks. I have seen a single specimen only of this species which has been 
taken in our waters. This was an immature fish sent me by Dr. Yale, from 
Holmess Hole. As Ihad not met with Dr. Mitchill’s paper on the “Fishes of 
New York," contained in the American Monthly Magazine, I described it in my 
* Report" as the A. monoceros, Bloch. Dekay, with recent specimens of the ma- 
ture fish before him, was enabled to correct my error; and, through the kindness 
of J. Carson Brevoort, of Brooklyn, New York, to whom I have already expressed 
my indebtedness, I have been furnished with recent specimens, and notes, by which 
I am enabled to present the present description and remarks. 
The color of this species varies exceedingly. Some specimens are almost as 
yellow as the Monacanthus aurantiacus; but most of them are of a dusky olive- 
brown, with cloudings of darker hue, and the series of spots of metallic brassy- 
yellow; while Dekay observes that he has seen them of a uniform brown, with- 
out any spots or clouds whatsoever. Brevoort tells me the species is very common 
in the month of September, and up to October 15th, in the narrow Shan of the 
marshy Jamaica Bay. They are taken in nets altogether. 
Massachusetts, SroreR. New York, MrrcmiL, Dekay. 
