244 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



dried and sun-baked from the ground, where the parent birds had dropped them 

 in feeding the young. Later a sick or injured specimen was found floating at the 

 surface in the channel between Loggerhead Key and White Shoal. This observa- 

 tion places this fish among the species occurring within the lagoon, for it seems 

 impossible that this crippled fish had escaped the notice of predaceous fishes and 

 birds long enough to drift far. It probably is another burrowing species. 



Poey (Memorias, vol. 2, i860, p. 287) described it very well. In all specimens 

 examined, however, the dorsal spines are 11, the anal spines 3, instead of 10 and 2 

 as usually recorded, the usual formulas being D. XI, 16; A. Ill, 16. The body is 

 crossed by many pale blue rather than white lines. 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Family URANOSCOPIDAE. Stargazers 



The principal differential characters of the three genera represented in the 

 local fauna are stated in the following key. S. F. H. 



Key to the Genera 



a. Scales on most of body; free margins of dentary bones forming two 

 prominent parallel bony ridges on anterior part of lower jaw; no 

 prominent expansions or spines on preopercle or subopercle . . Benthoscopus 

 aa. Scales wanting; chin without prominent bony ridges 



b. Head very large and bony, about 2.2 in length; angle of pre- 

 opercle developed as a long, flattened winglike appendage, 



equal to about a third the length of head Execestides 



bb. Head much smaller, about 3.0 in length; angle of preopercle 



without a prominent appendage; subopercle with spines . . Kathetostoma 



Benthoscopus Longley and Hildebrand 

 Benthoscopus Longley and Hildebrand, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 517, 1940, p. 264. 



Benthoscopus laticeps Longley and Hildebrand 



Benthoscopus laticeps Longley and Hildebrand, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 517, 1940, p. 

 264, figs. 20, 21 — Tortugas, Florida. 



Execestides egregius Jordan and Thompson 



This species apparently was not seen by Dr. Longley, and remains known only 

 from the type, taken at Garden Key a long time ago. 



A description with two figures was offered by Jordan and Thompson (Bull. 

 U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 (1905), p. 253, figs. 5, 6). Its very large, roughly 

 sculptured head, contained only 2.15 times in standard length, and the long, flat- 

 tened, winglike appendage at preopercular angle distinguish it from other local 

 forms. Some other proportions and enumerations given in the original descrip- 

 tion are: Depth 3.3. Eye in head 4.3; snout 5.3; maxillary 2.3; pectoral 1.8; ventral 

 3.0. D. 12; A. 17; P. 22; V. 1,5. The color was described as blackish, with dark 

 points; fins pale, with a blackish area at base of each; a pale streak along lateral 

 line, and one across base of dorsal. 



Known only from Tortugas, Florida. S. F. H. 



