676 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Opliidium barbatum MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 362, pi. I, 

 fig. 2, 1815. 



De Kay writes of the species as follows: 



This very rare and curious species was taken in a seine in the 

 harbor of New York in company with a school of the striped 

 bass. It is doubtless the O. barbatum of my venerable 

 friend, Dr Mitchill, which is too succinctly noted in the work 

 cited above. . . It has so much the habit of some of the Gadidae, 

 and more especially of the genus B r o t u 1 a , that our fisher- 

 men call it the little cusk. 



The fish inhabits the coast of the United States from New 

 York south to Pensacola and Texas. It is not very common. 



* 



It grows to the length of about 10 inches. A specimen was 

 taken in Great Egg Harbor bay during the winter of 1853-54, 

 but collectors who have visited the region since have not found 

 it again. In Gravesend bay, where the species is rare, an exam- 

 ple was obtained Oct. 24, 1894. The fis"h is known there as 



Slippery Dick. 



Suborder CRANIOMI 



Family TRIGLIDAE 



Gurnards 



Genus PRIONOTUS Lace'pede 



Body subfusiform; profile of head descending to the broad, 

 depressed snout, which is much longer than the small eye; eyes 

 close together, high up; surface of head entirely bony, the bones 

 rough with ridges and granulations; scales on head few or none; 

 preopercle with one or two sharp spines at its angle; opercle 

 with a sharp spine; nape with two strong spines, a spine on 

 shoulder girdle; mouth rather broad; bands of small, almost 

 granular, teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines; gill membranes 

 nearly separate, free from isthmus; gill rakers rather long; 

 body covered with small, rough scales, which are not keeled; 

 lateral line continuous; scales on breast very small; dorsal fins 

 distinct, the first of 8 to 10 rather stout spines, the third usually 

 highest, but mostly shorter than head; anal fin similar to soft 

 dorsal; pectoral fin with the three lower anterior rays thickened, 

 entirely free from each other and from the fin; ventrals I, 5, 



