FISHES OF PUGET SOUND. 813 



more than any one else to the knowledge of the fishes of 

 the Northern Pacific. 



Family RHAMPHOCOTTID.'E. 

 83. Rhamphocottus richardsoni Giinther. Plate lxxxvii. 



Head 2; depth 2; dorsal VII, 13; anal 6; pectoral 14; 

 orbit 6 in head ; maxillary 4; snout 3 ; highest dorsal spine 

 6%; dorsal ray 4; anal ray 4; pectoral 2%; ventral 2; 

 caudal 3. 



Body short, compressed, the back elevated, its greatest 

 depth just in front of spinous dorsal. 



Head large, as long as the rest of the body; snout long 

 and narrow; mouth U-shaped, its gape longer than wide, 

 lips thick, their surface broken up into papillae: maxillary 

 reaching the nasal spine; lower jaw included; teeth in 

 villiform bands on jaws and vomer, none on palatines; 

 eye placed high, its diameter contained twice in the snout, 

 once and a half in the interorbital; a branched dermal 

 flap, as long as pupil, at tip of the snout; head with two 

 large bony ridges above, continuous with the orbital rim 

 and ending in strong blunt spines at occiput, head deeply 

 concave between these ridges; nasal spine sharp and re- 

 curved ; a pair of strong spines over the eyes ; a sharp 

 spine just above opercle, a blunt one on opercle below 

 flap, and a long sharp one at angle of preopercle; a low 

 bony ridge leads to each of these spines; a long sharp 

 spine on clavicle just behind gill-opening; a blunt bony 

 knob at posterior end of mandible ; gill-openings extend- 

 ing upward from upper pectoral ray, their length equal to 

 the length of the snout. 



The entire head and body covered with multifid spines, 

 those on head much smaller than the ones on sides ; 

 a few simple spines along cephalic ridges ; the first dorsal 

 spine covered with spinules, and each dorsal ray has a 



