FISHES OF NEW YORK 639 



Genus MYOXOCEPHALUS (S teller) Tilesius 



l.od v slender or robust, subfusiform, covered with thick skin, 

 in which are sometimes embedded prick! v plates; deciduous, 

 granular, or stellate tubercles also sometimes present, but no 

 true scales. Head la rye. Mouth terminal, large, the lower jaw 

 always included, the uppermost the longer; villiform teeth on 

 the jaws and vomer, none on the palatines; siiborbital stay 

 strong; preopercle with two strong straight spines above 

 directed backward, and one below directed downward and for- 

 ward; operele, nasal bones, orbital rim, and shoulder girdle more 

 or less armed; gill membranes forming a fold across the rather 

 narrow isthmus; slit behind last gill reduced to a mere pore, or 

 wanting; vertebrae about 28. Urauchiostegals mostly six. 

 Dorsal fins two, separate, the first short, its spines rather slen- 

 der; ventral rays I, 3; caudal fin moderate, fan shaped; pectoral 

 fin broad, its lower rays proem-rent. Lateral line well devel- 

 oped, its tubes sometimes provided with bony or cartilaginous 

 plates, never chainlike nor reduced to separated pores. Species 

 numerous, in the seas of northern regions; coarse fishes, little 

 valued as food. 



Subgeuus ACAXTHOCOTTUS Girard 



312 Myoxocephalus aeneus (Mitchill) 

 Grubby ; Brassy >SV//fym/ ; Fi</ii/ 



Coitus (WICKS MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & riiil. Soc. N. Y. I, 380, 1815, New 



York; CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 189, 1829; 



DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna. Fishes, 52, 1842 (not figure); GOODE & BEAN, 



Bull. Essex lust. XI, 13. 1879; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 702, 1883; BEAN. 19th Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. 251. 1S9O. 



Scorpio MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & riiil. Soc. N. Y. I, 380, 1815. New 



York. 

 s wit chilli CUVIER & VALENCIENNES. Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 188. 1829, 



New York; DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna. Fishes, .";!. ill. 17, fig. 47, 1842; 



GI-NTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 104, 1860. 



is (AniniJtovottutiJ <inw'i< SALVAGE, Nouv. Archiv. Mus. Paris (2), I, 145, 



1>1. 1, fig. 13, 1878, New York. 

 Afinilliocottiis (cncits BEAN, Bull. Aui. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 369, 1897; H. M. 



SMITH, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 105, 1898. 

 Myoxocephalus witcus JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. -17. I". S. Nat. Mus. II, 



1972, 1898, pi. CCXCV, fig. 716, 716a, 1900. 



