

DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIE DISTRIBUTION. 317 



GRAMMONUS, Gill. 



Oligopus, SaCEPEDES. — Risso, Ichth. Nice, 1810, 112. 



Pteridium, Gunther Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., i\, 1862,376 mot Scopoii 1 ); Challenger Report, xxn, 105.— 



I'AMsiKiM. Pesci d'ltalia, 191.— Moreai . Bist. .Vit. l'<>i~s., France, \ n. 228 I family Pterid 

 Grammonus, (in.i . ms. 



Head and body compressed, covered with small scales, only the upper part of the 

 head and the snout being naked. The body is moderately elongate, the tail but little 

 attenuated. Snout obtuse, not swollen, with the jaws even in front, and with the mouth 

 obliquely ascending. Bones of the head firm, the muciferous canals narrow. Bye small. 

 Operculum with a short spine behind; preoperculum with two short projections near the 

 angle. Barbels none. Bands of villiform teeth in the jaws and an open V-shaped band 

 on the vomer; some slightly enlarged teeth along the inner series of the mandible and on 

 the vote :. palatine teeth none. Vertical fins confluent; ventrals close together, reduced 

 to a p of fine simple filaments, and inserted somewhat behind the isthmus, below the 

 middle of the operculum. Lateral line interrupted, dills 4: pseudobrauchia- none. 

 Branchiostegals 8. Pyloric appendages 2. {Giinther.) 



GRAMMONUS ATER, (Risso), Goode and Bean. 



ler, Risso, Ichth. Nice, 1810, 142, pL xi, fig. 11. 

 ptw ni,j,)\ Risso, Hist. Nat. Europe Meridionale, 1826, in, 338. 

 apsis ,,t,r, De Filippi, Siebold and Kolliker, Zeitsch. JViss. Zoiil., 1855, 170. 

 Pteridium alrum, I)e Filippi and Verany, Mem. Accad. Sci., Turin (2), win. Supra Alcuni Pesci (separate 

 from last), 11, fig. 6. — Gunther, ?«<■. cit. — Canestkini, loc. cit.— Moreau, loc. cit., Sg. 173. 



Body elongate, somewhat compressed, its height 5 to 6 times in total length. Head 

 large and long, its length 4 times in that of body. Mouth large, oblique, the maxillary 

 extending beyond vertical from posterior margin of orbit. Jaws nearly equal. A row of 

 sharp teeth, far apart and few in number, in the midst of others which are closely set and 

 very small. Vomer with 2-4 large, recurved teeth, in addition to several small ones. 

 Tongue smooth. Eye round, small, its diameter scarcely one-eighth the length of the 

 head. Lateral line interrupted, sometimes for a certain distance double. 



1 >orsal origin in vertical from middle of pectoral, ventrals filiform, closely approximated, 

 each composed of two short rays. 



Radial formula: D. 64; A. 41; P. 20; V. 2. 



Color, blackish, sometimes with a reddish tint. 



This form is very rare, having been recorded only from the Mediterranean off Nice, 

 where it lives at considerable depths, approaching the shores in August to deposit itseggs 

 in the crevices of rocky ledges. It is not positively known to inhabit the region beyond 

 the hundred-fathom Hue. 



Giinther has studied the lateral line in a single specimen, lately acquired by the Brit- 

 ish Museum, and reports that it is rather indistinct and interrupted, and that, in his judg- 

 ment, the fact that the ends of the two portions overlap each other has given rise to the 

 statement that the lateral line is double along a portion of the tail. 



CAT^ETYX, Gunther. 

 Caketyx, Gunther, Challenger Report, xxn, 104. 



Body compressed, elongate, covered with very small and thin scales; lateral line in- 

 distinct, interrupted. Head oblong, with somewhat pointed snout, covered with very small 

 scales, only the anterior part of the snout naked; bones of the head rather firm, but with 

 the muciferous system well developed, the canals having wide openings along the infraorbi- 

 tal, and on the lower limb of the preoperculum. Eye rather small. Nostrils far apart, the 

 posterior in front of the eye and the anterior at the extremity of the snout. Operculum 

 with a spine behind ; no other armature on the head. Snout not swollen, hut the upper jaw 



1 Pteridium of Scopoii (1777, page 151; is according to Gill, the equivalent ol PteraeUt of Gronovius. 



