Jordan ayid Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 2315 



dark, with few light cross bands. Panama; locally common, close to the 

 preceding but with smaller teeth and fewer iiu rays. The specimen exam- 

 ined by us collected by Dr. Gilbert. 



Batrachtis pacifici, GtJNTHER, Cat., iii, 173, 1801, Panama; Gunther, Tishea Centr. Amer., 



435, 1869. 

 Batrachoides paeifici, GiLL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 170; Meek & Hall, Proc. Ac. 



Nat. Sci. Phila. 1885, 62. 



859. OPSANUS,* Rafiuestiue. 



(Toad-fishes.) 



Opsanus, Eafln'esque, Anipr. Monthly Mag. 1817, 203 (cerapahix) . 



JBatrachue, Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 751, 1883, and of authors; not of Bloch <fe 

 Schneider. 



Body comparatively short and robust, scaleless; head large, depressed; 

 jaws, vomer, and palatines each with a single series of strong blunt teeth; 

 mandible with an additional external series at symphysis; teeth of upper 

 jaw small ; dentary bones forming an acute angle at symphysis ; lips fleshy ; 

 upper angle of opercle with 2 diverging spines, more or less concealed in 

 the skin; no poison glands; spinous dorsal of 3 stout, short spines, the 

 second the longest ; axil of pectoral with a large foramen ; t lateral line 

 obscure, its pores not conspicuous ; young with a series of small, tufted 

 cirri on back and sides ; branchiostegals 6 ; vertebrje 12 -f 22. Shore fishes, 

 mostly of temperate regions; voracious creatures, living on the bottoms, 

 feeding on mollusks and Crustacea, and having great strength of jaw. 

 (g3^, eye; a kgl), upward; "the name means looking up." Rafinesque.) 



a. Nostrils with fleshy tentacle between them. Color brownish or dusky greenish, mot- 

 tled with darker and lighter, the dark on sides of body in large irregular blotches 

 extending from base of dorsal to about j distance to base of anal, and more or 

 less covered with small pale spots ; beUy and chin plain white or yellowish. 



TAU, 2651. 

 aa. No-strils without fleshy tentacle. Color whitish or gray, everywhere blotched or 

 spotted with brownish yellow and black, the black spots on top of head smaller 

 and more numerous than on rest of bodj- ; a large black blotch at base of spinous 

 dorsal, running up on fln; 3 black blotches along base of soft dorsal, which do 

 not extend J the distance to base of anal ; pectoral with black spots which do not 

 form cross bands; ventrals with more dark markings than in tau: doi-sal, iinal, 

 and caudal marked nearly as in tau. PARDUS, 2652. 



2051. OPSANUS TAU (LinnsBus). 



(ToADFISH; SAPO; SLIMER; OYSTERPISH.) 



Head 2|; depth 4^. D. III-26 to 28; A. 24. Body robust, naked, the 

 head broad; mouth large, the very strong jaws closing with great force; 

 teeth blunt, those on mandible small anteriorly, regularly increasing in 



* The name Batrachus should not be used for this genus, as it was originally given 

 merely as a substitute for Batrachoides, having properly the same type, surindmensis, 

 wrongly supposed to be tau of LinniBus, a .species unknown to Lac6pede and Bloch & 

 Schneider. No convener of tau was placed in Batrachus by Bloch & Schneider. Prior to 

 any use of Batrachus as the generic name of the naked toadflshes, allied to tau, Rafi- 

 nesque had given to one of the hitter the generic name Opsanus. which can not be set aside 

 for BatracMis. the latter being an unnecessary synonym of Batrachoides. 



t The Brazilian genus, 2Iarcr/ravia (cryptocentra), in which this foramen is wanting, has 

 not been recorded from north of the equator. 



