50 THE DISCOBOLI. 



the female than on the male. On the former the skin is nearly or quite 

 smooth, and the growth peculiar to the reproductive season is most marked 

 on the anterior portions of dorsal and anal, and on the lower pectoral. 



Olivaceous to brown, puncticulate and clouded with darker, tinted with 

 reddish to yellowish ; in cases with cloudings, or nearly regular transverse 

 bands, on the vertical fins ; in others with markings reduced to mere freckles. 

 Frequently the outer borders of all the fins have darker blotches. 



Specimens of two and three fourths inches in length have the eggs fully 

 developed. The largest at hand is a female of four and one half inches. 



Two specimens in the Museum collections bear the label, " Triest, C. L. 

 Salmin"; their formula is D. 29-30; A. 24; P. 30; C. 14-17; Vert. 38. 

 Their colors are so faded nothing can be determined of the original 

 appearance. 



In the collection there are also specimens from various parts of the 

 coast of England and Scotland, from Grand Menan, from Eastport, and from 

 Portland Harbor, Maine, from Massachusetts Bay, and, south of Cape Cod, 

 from the shores of Connecticut. Numerous individuals were taken off Port- 

 land ; they are somewhat abundant in March and April, when they venture 

 into shoal water to deposit their eggs. They are found among the weeds or 

 under stones, where they lie with the tail turned forward, as in Figure 22 

 of Plate VII. Young ones are frequently met with inside of the shells of 

 pectens. 



Anatomy. 



As in all the species of this family, the bones are very light ; they are 

 perhaps a trifle less firm than those of L. mucosus, which are the best 

 ossified of those that have come to our attention. Viewed from above, 

 the skull of L. Montagui is broader than long. The width of the crown 

 at the occiput is nearly equal to its length from the ethmoid, which is at 

 the apex of its triangular area. Across the interorbital space the frontal 

 ridge is prominent. In front of it near each e3'e another ridge extends 

 forward to one of the turbinals. The occipital crest is not especially 

 prominent ; it has not so much of an upward curve posteriorly as that of 

 L. mucosus. The slender prolongation from the suborbital to the hinder 

 border of the moderately expanded upper limb of the preoperculum is less 

 than half as long as the forward section of the chain ; its position is nearly 

 horizontal. Tliere is but little curvature in the posterior extremity of the 



