676 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ophidium harbatnm Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 362, pi. I, 

 fig. 2, 1815. 



De Kay writes of the species as follows: 



This very rare and curious species was taken in a seine in the 

 harbor of New York in company with a school of the striped 

 bass. It is doubtless the O. barbatum of my venerable 

 friend, Dr Mitchill, which is too succinctly noted in the work 

 cited above. . . It has so much the habit of some of the Gadidae, 

 and more especially of the genus B r o t u 1 a , that our fisher- 

 men call it the little cusJc. 



The fish inhabits the coast of the United States from New 

 York south to Pensacola and Texas. It is not very common. 

 It grows to the length of about 10 inches, A specimen was 

 taken in Great Egg Harbor bay during the winter of 1853-54, 

 but collectors who have visited the region since have not found 

 it again. In Gravesend bay, where the species is rare, an exam- 

 ple was obtained Oct. 24, 1894. The fish is known there as 



Slippery Dick. 



Suborder CRANIOMI 



Family xriglidae 



Gnrnai'ds 



Genus prionotus Lac^p^de 



Body subfusiform; profile of head descending to the broad, 



depressed snout, which is much longer than the small eye; eyes 



close together, high up; surface of head entirely bony, the bones 



rough with ridges and granulations; scales on head few or none; 



preopercle with one or two sharp spines at its angle; opercle 



with a sharp spine; nape with two strong spines, a spine on 



shoulder girdle; mouth rather broad; bands of small, almost 



granular, teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines; gill membranes 



nearly separate, free from isthmus; gill rakers rather long; 



body covered with small, rough scales, which are not keeled; 



lateral line continuous; scales on breast very small; dorsal fins 



distinct, the first of 8 to 10 rather stout spines, the third usually 



highest, but mostly shorter than head; anal fin similar to soft 



dorsal; pectoral fin with the three lower anterior rays thickened, 



entirely free from each other and from the fin; ventrals I, 5, 



