PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 29 



ber ; opercle covered with 5 or 6 similar scales ; gill-membraues broadly 

 united, free from the isthmus. 



Dorsal spiues robust aud pungent, the first three with conspicuous 

 filamentous appendages ; first and second spines with their filaments 

 about equal, 1^ in head ; without their filaments the second spine is 

 slightly the longest, equaling distance from end of snout to middle of 

 eye ; the fin rapidly descends to the fourth spine, which is one-half as 

 long as the second, then gradually rises to the ninth and highest, which 

 is, however, shorter than the following soft rays ; longest soft raj', 1| in 

 head ; anal spines similar to those of dorsal fin, the longest about one- 

 half head; caudal evenly convex, its longest ray 1^ in head; ventrals 

 short, about one-half length of head, an elongate scale between them 

 at base; pectorals reaching beyond the ventrals, but not to vent, If in 

 head. 



Membranes of vertical fins, with elongate scales ou basal portion. 

 Lateral line following outline of back one scale beyond end of dorsal 

 fin, thence interrupted and continued on four scales of middle of caudal 

 peduncle. 



Head, 2f in length; depth, 2f. D. IX, 10; A. Ill, 9; Scales U—20 

 (pores) — 6^. 



Color in life. — Very intense grass-green, about uniform over the 

 body; head more yellowish, slightly paler below; opercles mesially a 

 little darker; iris red, with a green ring; dorsal, anal, and caudal 

 grass-green, mottled with light orange; tips of longer spines green, of 

 short ones orange ; ventrals, deep green, the membranes largely orange ; 

 pectorals, light yellowish. 



A single specimen, 2f inches in length, of this most beautiful species, 

 was obtained with the seine in eel grass at Key West. 



7. Gobiosoma ceuthoecum. 



Body slender; head depressed, flat above, narrow and slender; eyes 

 large, the interorbital space very narrow ; snout not blunt ; mouth ter- 

 minal, oblique, maxillary reaching to below eye, about one-third length 

 of head; chin with a fringe of short, whitish barbels, arranged in two 

 rows ; eye large, rather more than one-fourth length of head, about three 

 times interorbital width. 



Vertical fins high, none of the rays or spines produced ; membrane of 

 last dorsal spine reaching origiu of soft dorsal : pectorals long, reaching 

 vertical from vent, one-fourth length of body: none of the upper rays 

 silk-like. Ventral not reaching vent, one and five-sixths in head. Head 

 aud body scaleless. 



Depth one-half head, which is three aud two-thirds in length. D. 

 VII, 10; A. 10. 



Upper half of head and body of a warm brown, being covered with 

 very close-set, coarse, brown specks ; four oblong, colorless areas along 

 base of dorsals, and a smaller one on back of caudal peduncle; head 

 and body below translucent, this meeting the brown in a sharply de- 



