58 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Agnus, with the distinguisbiug characters of a naked body and the ab- 

 seuce of a mament hi the mouth. Dr. Oill, in 1861,* used the same 

 characters in transferring the same species from TJranoscopus to Astro- 

 scopus of Brevoort, adding some particuhirs as to the mailing of the head 

 and the armature of the preopercuhim. The species, in tact, is covered 

 with scales, which in the young are inconspicuous, hut in the adult 

 may be readily counted. The genus Astroscojms, however, is well sep- 

 arated from Uranoscoptts, and may be thus defined : 



ASTROSCOPUS Brevoort. 

 UranoscojniHuix Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., viii, 1831, p. 493. 

 Adroscopm Bkkvookt, Proc. Pliila. Acad. Nat. Sci., Jan. 1880, p. 20.— Gill, op. cit., 



1861, p. IP.}. 

 A(inus GtrxTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mas., ii, 1860, p. 229. 

 Upscloriphorits Gill, op. et loc. cit. 



Head above with its crown covered with a bony plate, from the middle 

 of the anterior margin of which arises a y-shaped apophysis, the limbs 

 of which extend to the orbits. Postocular region covered only with skin. 

 Preopercuhim with two blunt processes t generally radiating from the 

 angle of its anterior limb, one of which is directed downwards and for- 

 wards. Humeral spine inconspicuous. Lower jaw entire beneath. Lips 

 furuished with numerous filaments. No spines before the ventrals.| 

 No intralabial filament. Head and belly without scales ; the rest of the 

 body covered with small scales. Two dorsal fins ; the first composed 

 of four short spines, the second about equal to the anal. 

 1. Astroscopus y-grsecum (Cuv. & Val.) Gill. 



Urano'ivopiis ii-tjra'cum Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., iii, 1829, p. 308.— GtJN- 



TiiER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., ii, I860, p. 229. 

 Astrocopus y-fjrcvciim GiLL, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., xii, 1860, p. 21. 

 Upscloiqihonts u-grwciimGll.1., OT[). cit., xiii, 1831, p. 113. 



There are now two specimens of this species in the National Museum, 

 one (No. 18011) taken in the Saint John's Ptiver, Florida, by Prof. S. F. 

 Baird, April 2, 1877 •, the other (No. 18029) collected in the I\Iatanzas 

 Kiver Inlet, Florida, by Mr. Joseph C. Willetts, in February, 1877. In 

 a collection of color-sketches of fishes made for Prof. Louis Agassiz, and 

 now lent by the Museum of Comparative Zoology to the National 

 Museum, are illustrations of A. y-grwciim from Hampton Koads, Va., 

 Charleston, S. C, and Pensacola, Fla. 



Description.— The greatest height of the body (.26) equals twice the 

 length of the operculum (.13). Its greatest width (.21) equals tlie height 

 at the ventrals (.21), and the distance of the ventrals from the snout 

 (.21). The least height of the tail (.10) is contained 10 times in the total 

 length, and equals the distance between the eyes (.10). The length of 

 the caudal peduncle (.08) equals that of the last anal ray (.08), and is 

 contained 12.J times in the total len gth. 



* Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1861, p. 113. 

 t More marked in A. etii02)Iiis than in A. n-fjrn'cum. 



t These are present in Uranoscopus scaler and TJ. anper, and probably in all species of 

 TJmmscopus. I am not aware that this has been previously mentioned. 



