728 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY - IV. 



384. AGONUS Bloch & Schneider. 



(AapidopJionu Lucdpude: Phalangisics Pallas.) 

 (Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth. 104, 1801: type Coitus cataphractua L.) 



Body low; bead broad, depressed, about as broad as long; mouth 

 small, siil anterior, the lower jaw inrluded; no vomeriue teeth; gill- 

 meinbranes joined to the isthmus, forming a narrow fold across it; 

 plates on body without spines; fins short. One species known, (a, 

 without; pws/?, joint: i. e., rigid.) 



1116. A. cata.p9ir;ictns (L.) Bloch & Schneider. Sea Poacher. 



Brownish, sides with some dark bands; pectorals and upper fins 

 barrt-d. Body anteriorly very broad, flattened below, tapering ab- 

 ruptly forward to the triangular snout, and slowly backward to the 

 long and slender tail; the greatest width is half more than the greatest 

 height and 5 times the least height; snout with four sharp, hooked 

 spines projecting much beyond the horizontal -shaped mouth; lower 

 jaw profusely covered with thickish barbels, the largest longer than 

 c\c; subor.bital narrow, with three blunt bony projections; preopercle 

 and subopercle each with a stout spine, that on subopercle the larger 

 ami hooked backward; bones of head striate; orbital crests elevated, 

 roughish; interorbital space broader than eye; top of head little un- 

 even, without spines; two blunt occipital processes; no nuchal depres- 

 sion; the space between dorsal ridges concave; plates on body rugose; 

 lateral plates much smaller than others, the upper lateral series obsolete 

 from middle of spinous dorsal forward, in which region the lower lateral 

 >eries is much enlarged; breast with four quadrate plates forming a 

 square. Dorsal small; pectoral about as long as head, reaching to 

 within tour plates of anal; ventrals short, reaching little beyond vent, 

 <;v; in length. Head about as broad as long, 4A; depth G. I). V-7; A. 

 r; Lat. 1. .'J.">; cu-ca 5; vertebra! 11 + 25. Northern Europe; recorded, 

 perhaps erroneously, from (ireenland. 



(Col/iiH c<iliiilinn-lnx I,. Sysi. Nat. i, lf>l : .l.x/wfr//)/ior armatux Larf'p. iii, 222; Giiu- 

 Ilirr, ii, 211 ; l>ay, Fi-h.-- < Jn-at Krit.-iin, 



38*. BOTIIKAOONUS Gill. 



(Gill, Bull. I'. S. NaL Mtis. \i. iiu-d.: type lli//nii/i>iiiif< mrnni Stcindaclincr.) 



IJody rather sliort and deep, broad and depressed anteriorly, com- 

 pressed behind; a deep nuchal pit ; month snbinl'erior, the lower jaw 

 included ; head and neck to the dorsal tin rhombic in outline, as seen 

 from above; jaws and vomer with teeth; dorsals small, well separated; 



