FAMILY CYCL0PTERIDJ5. 305 



FAMILY CYCLOPTERIDM. 



A small family, characterized by the ventrals being united into a disk or cup-shaped form. 

 Body smooth, and without scales. Eyes placed one on each side of the head. Branhcial 

 rays six. 



GENUS LUMPUS. Cuvier. 



Two dorsals ; the first often so much enveloped in a. tuberculous skin, as to appear like a 

 hump of the back. Second dorsal with rays, and opposite to the anal. Body deep and 

 rough, with bony tubercles. 



THE LUMP-FISH. 



LUMPUS ANGLORUM. 



PLATE LIV. FIG. 175. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Lumpus anghrum. Willughby, Historia Pisciura, p. 208. 



Cycloplerus ceruleus, The Blue Lump-fish. Mitchill, Lit. and PhiL Soc. Vol. 1, p. 4S0, pi. 2, fig. 7. 



C. lumpus, The Lump. Richardson, Fauna Boreali Americana, Part 3, Fishes, p. 260. 



Lumpus vulgaris. Cuvier, Rdgne Animal, Vol. 2. 



L. id. Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 151. 



Characteristics. Blue. Three series of tubercles along the sides. Dorsal lump with a fissure 

 on its posterior part. Length ten to twenty inches. 



Description. Body suborbicular in its outline, compressed, more especially towards the 

 dorsal ridge. It is soft and flaccid, resembling a lump of jelly. Instead of scales, the body 

 is covered with minute tubercles, and horizontal series of larger ones. From the anterior 

 portion of the dorsal ridge, the outline slopes in a concave line to the orbits, where it becomes 

 abruptly declivous to the snout. The space between the orbital ridges, flat. On the lop or 

 ridge of the back, is a series of from five to seven large compressed tubercles, and a smaller 

 row on the anterior slope. Behind the large tubercle, there is a deep oblique fissure ; poste- 

 rior to which the dorsal surface becomes flat, with a series of from three to five sharp unequal 

 tubercles on each side, the posterior largest. A series of large tubercles commences before 

 the eyes, curves over the pectorals, and then proceeds in a straight line through the upper part 

 of the tail. Another series of which the first four are very large and closely approximated, 

 commences a short distance above the ventral part of the branchial aperture, curves slightly 

 downward, and, with a slight interruption, passes through the lower part of the tail ; there is 

 still another series on each side of the abdomen, consisting of about six inequidistant large 

 tubercles. Eyes lateral, prominent. Nostrils double ; the anterior large and tubular ; the 

 posterior scarcely perceptible, when they will be found just within the first large tubercle, on 

 the superciliary ridge. Branchial rays four, slender. Mouth moderately large, broad ; the 



Fauna — Part 4. 39 



