CONGIOPODIDAE 



127 



sometimes forming a band in each jaw, sometimes arranged in 1 or 2 irregular rows ; 

 the teeth are often difficult to see owing to the fleshy nature of the gums. About 

 1 1 gill-rakers on lower part of anterior arch. Dorsal XVT-XVII 13-14 ; fourth to sixth 

 spines longest, § to £ as long as head ; last spine f to f as long as the first soft-ray. 

 Anal 8-10. Yellowish brown, variously spotted and marbled with black; often a more 

 distinct pale stripe bordered with dark brown or black in the region of the lateral line ; 

 head and fins in the young often with pale dots ; membrane of anterior part of spinous 

 dorsal black, a black blotch on the upper part of the fin in the region of the sixth to 

 ninth spines, and usually another in the region of the last four or five spines ; in the 

 young these two blotches are united and the upper part of the fin is black from the 

 sixth spine to the last ; an oblique dark blotch on soft-rays of dorsal fin ; a rather broad, 

 curved dark cross-bar on the caudal ; a large black blotch on the pectoral and another 



Fig. 70. Congiopodus peruvianus. x i. 



on the pelvic; sometimes in adults the head, body and fins are all dark brown, the 

 black spots and markings being nearly obscured. 



Hab. Both coasts of southern South America, from Uruguay to Peru. 



In addition to the above, there are 16 specimens (40-250 mm.) in the British Museum 

 collection from the Straits of Magellan, west coast of Patagonia, and the coasts of Chile 

 and Peru. 



There can be little doubt that the small examples with horny tubercles (hispidus) 

 represent the young of C. peruvianus, as was suspected by Jenyns himself. In 2 specimens 

 examined by me, 40 and 44 mm. long, the body is thickly covered with tubercles, and 

 these examples agree very well with Jenyns' description and figure of hispidus. In a 

 specimen of 66 mm., labelled Agriopus alboguttatus, the tubercles are fewer and more 

 scattered. All these specimens show faint traces of the pale dots mentioned by Krtfyer 

 in his description of A. alboguttatus, the type of which was about 63 mm. in total length. 



Hutton (1896, Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., xxvni, p. 314) has recorded this species from 

 New Zealand, but examination of 2 specimens (135, 142 mm.) in the British Museum, 

 received from Hutton himself, shows that these are young examples of C. leucopoecilus 

 (Richardson), a species readily distinguished from C. peruvianus by the more slender 



