1936] Schults: Keys to Fishes 185 



12a. Lower jaw produced beyond maxillaries; lower 4 

 or 5 rays of the pectoral fin not thickened and not 

 separated from the other rays by a notch. Range : 

 Aleutian Islands to coast of Washington. Marine. 

 Common. 



Black Sea Poacher 



281. Bathyagonus nigripitinis Gilbert 



12b. Lower jaw not produced beyond maxillaries ; ter- 

 minal rostral plate with 5 small spines ; origin of 

 1st dorsal on 8th plate of dorsal series. 



13a. Plates on cheeks thick, inflexible, immovably 

 united with each other and with the interopercle ; 

 lower 5 pectoral rays thickened ; a single median 

 pair of plates in front of pelvics, the remaining 

 plates of median series unpaired, (the plates of 

 the 2nd pair fused) 10 



14a. Margin of preorbital not spinous, ventrolateral 

 series of plates smooth throughout (without 

 spines) ; spines of lower lateral series weak 

 or obsolescent, this especially marked on cau- 

 dal peduncle ; deep nuchal depression ; space 

 between dorsal ridges deeply concave ; plates 

 on cheeks, in adults, without spines or tuber- 

 cles ; gill membranes without posterior free 

 margin ; lower pectoral rays much exserted 

 beyond the membrane, a distinctly deeper 

 notch between the two portions of the fin. 

 Range : Alaska to Puget Sound. Marine. Com- 

 mon. 



Gray Star-snout 



282. Astcrotheca alascana (Gilbert) 



14b. Lower margin of preorbital strongly spinous 

 in adults; anterior plates of ventrolateral se- 

 ries with short but evident spines ; lower lat- 

 eral plates all strongly spinous, figs. 49 and 

 50, except the anterior 5 or 6, which are 

 smooth as in other species ; plates on cheeks 

 with minute spines ; nuchal depression shallow ; 

 space between dorsal ridges shallowly concave ; 

 gill membranes with a narrow free margin 

 posteriorly ; lower pectoral rays comparatively 

 little exserted, no conspicuous notch between 

 the 2 portions of the fin. Range : Washington. 

 Marine. Common. Fig. 47. 

 283. Asterothcca infraspinata (Gilbert) 



13b. Plates on cheeks thin, flexible, not fused, read- 

 ily movable, all (or the posterior 2) bearing each 

 a strong backwardly directed spine ; ventrolateral 

 series of plates sharply spinous throughout as is 

 the lower lateral series, with the exception of 

 the first 5 or 6 ; 2 median pairs of plates in front 

 of pelvics ; lower 4 pectoral rays thickened, a 

 deep notch between the two portions of the fin ; 

 eye very large ; spines on eyeball weak or obso- 



10 This part of the key is modified after C. H. Gilbert (1917), Proc. U.S.N.M. 



