312 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



/. Vomer and palatines with teeth; disk perfectly smooth ventrally; 

 "wrist" of pectoral attached to body by skin; pectoral fin with 

 16 rays; upper surface grayish and dotted with white, generally 

 also with brown streaks, sometimes forming reticulations, rings, 



or angular figures Halieutichthys aculeatus 



//. Roof of mouth without teeth; disk ventrally rough, with numer- 

 ous fine tubercles; "wrist" of pectoral largely free from body; 

 pectoral fin with 13 rays; upper surface plain gray . Dibranchus atlanticus 



Ogcocephalus nasutus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Dr. Longley identified a few specimens doubtfully as of this species, but none 

 in his collection were so labeled. I have referred to it 3 specimens, 107, 135, and 

 140 mm. long. If the 135-mm. fish belongs here it must be assumed to be ab- 

 normal, as it has no rostral process. In other respects it agrees fairly well with 

 the other 2. 



This species has been referred to as the short-nosed species. In the 2 normal 

 specimens at hand, the distance from the tip of the rostrum to the eye is about 

 equal to the diameter of the eye. The following proportions and enumerations 

 are based on the 2 normal specimens. The larger one apparently has been dry, 

 making fin-ray counts impracticable. Head, measured to gill opening and with- 

 out rostral process, in length, the latter also measured without rostral process, 

 2.0, 2.1; depth 5.3, 5.4. Eye in head 5.6, 6.3; rostrum in advance of eye 6.0, 6.9; 

 interorbital 6.8, 8.1; caudal peduncle 4.9, 5.9; pectoral 1.6, 2.1. D. 4; A. 4; P. 13. 

 The number of fin rays in the apparently abnormal specimen agrees with the 

 normal ones. 



The smaller specimen and the abnormal one have dark spots (polka dots) on 

 the shoulder area, sides of the head, and laterally on the tail, which may have 

 been present on the third one, but possibly were destroyed by drying. The pec- 

 torals and caudal are black-tipped. 



West Indies to Florida. S. F. H. 



Ogcocephalus cubifrons (Richardson) 



(Plate 33, figure 2) 



}Lophius radiatus Mitchill, Amer. Monthly Mag., vol. 2, 1818, p. 326 — Straits of the 



Bahamas. 

 Lophins (Malthe) cubifrons Richardson, Fauna Bor. Amer., vol. 3, 1836, p. 103, pi. 96 — 



Labrador (highly improbable). 



Rather common in 10-fathom channels; occasional in shallow water. Local 

 material includes 17 specimens, 44 to 295 mm. long, all from the channel east 

 of Loggerhead bank. 



With these fish before me it appears that the rostrum scarcely grows longer 

 after the fish reaches a standard length of 50 mm. In a specimen 51 mm. in 

 standard length it measures 10 mm., and in only one, 66 mm. long, of several up 

 to 240 mm. does it attain a length as great as 11 mm. The interorbital width 

 meanwhile increases from 4.0 mm. to 17 mm. From the standard length of 150 

 mm. at least the rostrum is "a mere button-like tubercle." In 5 fish, 102 to 123 



