PROCEEDINGS OF UNlTEt) STATES NATIONAL MUSrtJM. 471 



ornous character of the skull is the most strikiiift- reanne of the genus 

 VeriluSi 



27. Verilus sordidus. 



Fcrilun siirdiditSf Pocy, Menioiias, ii, 125, 18G0, tab. 12, f. G (Cuba); t^oey; 

 Rppprtorio, ii, 157, 1H:'>7 ; Poey, Synopsis, 21)1, 18C>8 ; Poey, Eiinnu'ialin, ;}2^ 



1875. 



Habitat. — About Cuba, in deep water. 



Head, 2t (3= ) ; depth, 3 (3^). D. IX, 1, 10 ; A, III, 1. Scales (4), 4-43- 

 0; 41 pores. Length of a specimen from Havana, 11 inches. 



Body oblong, compressed, rather robust; caudal peduncle short and 

 thick; head large; profile almost straight I'rom snout to origin of 

 sj^inous dorsal, and not at all steep. Snout very short and blunt, 4 in 

 head. Eye very large, 2| in head. Interorbital space^ flat, its width 

 4f in head. Occipital keel very low. Preorbital very narrow, 7 in eye, 

 nearly 20 in head. Maxillary reaching middle of eye, 2 in head. Mouth 

 large, oblique, the lower jaw projecting. Upper jaw with a rather 

 broad band of villiform teeth, the outer row scarcely enlarged; two 

 moderate canines in front of jaw, curved inward. Lower jaw with a 

 single series of teeth on sides of jaw, this series giving place to a very 

 narrow villiform band in front, with two (sometimes duplicated) small 

 canines directed nearly horizontally backward. Vomer with a narrowly 

 A-shaped patch of teeth, without backward prolongation on median 

 line. Tongue and pterygoids without teeth. Gill-rakers numerous, their 

 length almost half diameter of eye; 17 on the lower part of the arch, all 

 developed. Preopercle with posterior margin weak and flexible, almost 

 entire, becoming somewhat seirate at the angle an<l on lower limb; no 

 distinct easargination, but the angle salient, membranaceous. Scales 

 large, the rows horizontal below the lateral line; those above rather 

 irregular, the series running ujiward and backward. Head scaly every, 

 where, the scales generally snuiller than on body; opercle Mith 3 rows 

 of scales, very large, one row on subopercle; cheeks with many rows of 

 scales, those in the middle very small; one or two rows on intcropercle. 

 Base of soft dorsal and anal somewhat scaly. Dranchiostegals 7. 

 Spinous and soft dorsals entirely separate; first s[)ine 4^ in second, 

 which is 2J in head, the siiines thence becoming gradually shorter to 

 ninth spine, which nl)out equals length of lirst spine. Last rays of 

 dorsal and anal not produced ; margin of soft dorsal slightly concave, 

 the anterior rays longest, 2.^ in head; anal similar to soft dorsal, its 

 margin rather more (joncave; first soft rays extending Iteyond ti[)s of 

 last rays, when the tin is depressed. Anal spines moderate, the third 

 slightly longer than second, 2ji in head; caudal fin short, broad, mod- 

 erately forked, the upper lobe longer, its length scarcely twice that of 

 middle rays, which are 2f in head. Pectorals long, reaching to origin 

 of anal, 1^ in head ; ventrals 1§ in head. 



Color in spirits dusky grey, slightly paler below; tips of spinous 

 dorsal and ventrals jet black, the fins otherwise colored as the body; 



