714 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



vent; ventrals half way to vent. Head 3 in length; depth C. D. 

 A' 11-17: A. 17; V. I, 4. L. 12 inches. Kodiak to San Diego; every- 

 where very common; the most abundant of the Cottoids of our west 

 coast. 



(Giranl, Pmr. A<-:ul. Nat. Sci. Phila. 18.'>4, 131; Girard, U. S. Pac. R. R. Surv. Fish. 

 60: Centridermichthya armatus Giiuther, ii, 171.) 



374. BIEUllLEPIDOTUS Cuvier. 

 (Temnistia Richardson: Caltjcilepidotua Ayrcs.) 



(Cuvier, Regne Anim. ed. 2d, lt<29: typo Coitus htmiltpidoius Tilesius.) 



Body with two broad bauds of rough scale-like plates on each side, 

 one along the side of the back, one along the lateral line, the upper 

 bands meeting anteriorly in front of dorsal; scales roundish, their up- 

 per and posterior margins free; skin otherwise naked; head naked. 

 Yilliform teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines. Branchiostegals 0. A 

 small slit behind fourth gill; gill-membranes joined to the isthmus, 

 sometimes forming a narrow fold across it ; preopercular spines simple, 

 strong. Dorsal fins connected, the first long, with strong spines, emar- 

 ginate, the first three spines shorter than those which follow; ventrals 

 I, 4. North Pacific, (^//t, half; A-:<JT;-, scaled.) 



a. Belly immaculate. 



1O!)7. II. SpiiiOSUS (Ayres) Grd. Cdbezon. 



Brown, mottled and obscurely barred, often tinged with red; top of 

 head usually with brick-red; fins all, except ventrals, mottled with 

 blackish and reddish; skin joining bones of jaws unspotted; belly 

 whitish, immaculate. Body rather elongate, depressed; head broad, 

 somewhat concave between the occipital ridges; two sharp radiating 

 ridges behind upper posterior margin of each orbit; top of head cov- 

 ered with loose skin, and with thick-set mucous tubes; interorbital 

 space narrow, concave, half diameter of eye; preopercle with l' strong, 

 shortish, diverging spines above; fleshy slips above operclc, near upper 

 posterior part of eye, and at occiput; a long lleshy slip on maxillary, 

 and 4 on lower jaw; many scales on sides with small Haps; skin, where 

 not scaly, thin and lax; dorsal band of scales with about Trows at 

 its widest par!, anteriorly much wider than the space between it and 

 the lateral hand; isthmus rather narrow, I he membranes not forming 

 a fold across it; dorsal tins considerably connected, spines very low, 

 the highest about two-thirds the height of the soft rays, and 3;| iu 

 head; first dorsal spine about half as long as maxillary; pectorals 



