722 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY - IV. 



base of the pectorals, the membranes below completely united to the 

 shoulder girdle and isthmus; apparently no slit behind last gill; a 

 stout, straight, preopercular spine; nasal spines present; no other 

 spiiu-s on head. Skin everywhere on head and body firm, immovable, 

 dcirscly covered with stiff bifid or trifid spinous prickles; spinous dor- 

 sal very small; pectoral with procurrent base, (pantos, snout; XWT-TOC, 

 Cottus.) 



11O8. R. richardsoni Gthr. 



Brownish, with 6 or 8 oblique black bands running downward and 

 forward; a white bar below eye; a dusky bar at bases of pectorals and 

 ventrals, the fins otherwise plain. Head hard and bony, nearly as 

 long as rest of body; snout 'rather longer than eye, which is of mod- 

 erate size, and with partly vertical range; maxillary extending to front 

 of eye; suborbital stay strong; pectorals long, reaching tips of ventrals 

 and past front of anal; ventrals long, their rays prickly. Head 2; 

 depth 2. D. VII-14; A. 7 or 8; V. ca. I, 4. L. 2 inches. Northern 

 seas. Three specimens known: the one here described from Bering's 

 Straits; the original, said to be from "Fort Rupert"; a third recently 

 obtained by Mr. Lockington, from the stomach of a Sebastodes, at Mon- 

 tcrey. 



(Giiuther, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, xiv, 370, 1874; Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1881, 

 252.) 



FAMILY CVIII (a) AGONIDJE.* 



(The Alligator-fishes.) 



Body elongate, or more or less elevated, angular, covered with about 

 eight longitudinal series of large bony plates, which form a coat of mail ; 



"The following genera and species of this type have been described from Kaui- 

 tschatka .UK! I lie Kurile Islands, and will doubtlesi be found oil our Alaskan coast: 



IIYPSAGONUS Gill. 



(Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. l^I'd, '2.')!): type Anpidopliorn* qnnrtricnrni* Cuv. &. Val.) 

 \\m\\ eompre^r-ii ami rii's atrd, its depth greater than length of head, more than 



one-third the hoily: head small, separated from the liase of the dorsal by a very deep 

 nuchal depression ; top of head very uneven ; mouth terminal. 1 he jaws about equal; 

 novoim-riue teeth; gill-membranes midcscrihed. probal>ly free from isthmus; no bar- 

 bels; scales large. not very rough, most of them stiiate ami armed with a central 

 spine or tubercle; dorsal spines strong, the first serrated ; pectorals short, procurrent; 

 ventrals small, (vifit, high ; .lijonun.) 



11. tiixidrii-oniix (Cuv. & Val.) Gill. 

 Two horns above eye And 2 above occiput; intcrorbital space nearly as broad as 



