730 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



very small, in villiform bands; none on vomeror palatines; lower parts 

 of head with barbels; gill-membranes united to the isthmus, not form- 

 ing a fold across it. Plates of body armed with spines; spiiious dorsal 

 present. Ventral rays I, 2. (~u-^ foot; Or^r n box, from a supposed 

 groove tor the reception of the veutrals.) 



1119. P. vulsus J. & G. 



Dark brown, with 7 to darker cross-bars, extending on the fins; 

 pectorals black, with whitish edging and a pale blotch near base; other 

 fins chiefly black, the anal with whitish edging; belly white. Body 

 very elongate, broader than high. Head triangular, the profile irregu- 

 lar, the snout pointed. Mouth -shaped, entirely inferior, the maxil- 

 lary reaching front of pupil; distance from premaxillaries to tip of 

 rostral spines, about half length of snout; maxillary, interopercle, and 

 branebiostegals, with scattered cirri, these fewer and smaller than in 

 P. acipenserinus ; none oh lower side of snout. Eye large, as long as 

 snout, .'ii in head; the orbital rim prominent all around. Spines of 

 head more numerous than in the other Agonidcc. Snout with two 

 strong spines directed forwards, two large ones behind them directed 

 upwards, then two smaller ones; orbital ridge elevated and serrated, 

 with a preocular and a supraocular spine; behind the latter, a ridge 

 armed with two spines on each side, separated from the first plates of 

 the dorsal series by a deep quadrangular pit; a row of minute, erect 

 spines on median line of back and top of head; a sharp, serrated, tem- 

 poral ridge, with four spines; opercle with a strong rib and several 

 spines; suborbital stay with an irregular prominent ridge; preoperele 

 with three principal spines and some smaller ones; suborbital narrow, 

 hall' width of eye, extremely uneven, armed with small spines and 

 tnbeivles; more t lian 70 spines and tubercles on the head. Plates of 

 body all striate, those above and on sides ending each in a sharp 

 spine; breaM with about six polygonal plates, on each side of which 

 are the plates of the abdominal series; bases of caudal and pectorals 

 with small spines. Ventrals short, the vent near the middle of their 

 length. Head 1: depth X. D. 1X-7; A. '.; Lat. 1. 40. L. 4 inches. 

 Deep water, oil' San Francisco; not common. 



i-///.-, s .Ionian A Cilln-it, Proc. U. S. Nat. MILS, iii, 303, 1830.) 



1 12O. P. ariiM'iiscriiitiK (Tiles.) Gill. Alligator 



Brown with darker marblings and narrow vertical streaks; fins oliva- 

 ceous, more or less marbled with dark; ventrals plain, black in <? ; a 



