658 NEW YORK STATE MUSETJM 



At the latter place thej were associated with F u n d u 1 u s , 

 Cyprinodon, Lucania, Mugil, Bairdiella, 

 A n g u i 1 1 a , and swarms of shrimp. 



This little goby seizes its food with a snap, and immediately 

 darts off to conceal itself in a rock crevice or behind plants. 



Group TBACHINOIDEI 



TracMnoid fishes 



Family ura.noscof'idab 



Stargazers 



Subfamily ura.noscof'inae 



Genus ASTROscopus Brevoort 



Body robust. Head above not entirely covered with b.one, the 



occipital plate ceasing much behind the orbits; from the middle 



line anteriorly a Y-shaped bony process extends forward, the 



tips of the fork between the eyes; a trapezoidal space on either 



side of the Y, covered by naked skin, bounded by the Y, the 



eyes, the suborbitals, and the occipital plate. A covered furrow 



behind and on the inner side of each eye terminating near front 



of orbits, its edges fringed. Head without spines; humeral spine 



obsolete; lips and nostrils fringed; no retractile tentacle in 



mouth. Young individuals with top of head largely covered by 



bone. Head scaleless; back and sides covered with close set 



scales; belly mostly naked. No spine before the ventrals. First 



dorsal small, of four or five low, stout, pungent spines, connected 



by membrane to the second dorsal which is rather high and long; 



pectorals and ventrals large. Species American, distinguished 



from the Old World genus, Uranoscopus, chiefly by the 



unarmed head. 



322 Astroscopus guttatus Abbott 



Spotted 8 tar gazer 



Astroscopns guttatus Abbott, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 365, ISfiO, Cape 

 May, N. J.; Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 370, 1897; Jordan 

 & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. Ill, 2310, 1898. 



Vpnilonphorus guttatus Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 60, 1879; Kirscii, 

 Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 264, 1889. 



Astroscoims anoplus Bean, Bull. U. S. P. C. VII, 136, pi. I, figs. 1, 2, 1S8S, 

 Somers Point, N. J., not Uranoscopus anoplos C. & V. 



