2658 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



3028. GLTPTOCEPHALUS ZACHIKUS, Lookington. 

 (Long-finned Sole.) 



Head ^\ to 5* ; greatest width of body 3^ to 3^ ; eye 3i in head ; snout 8. 

 D. 94tol0(j; A. 79 to 89; I'. 11 to 13; V. 6; vertebrii' 13 + 52-^65. Body 

 eldugate-Dvate, anterior portion of the oval shorter than posterior; snout 

 declivous, almost vertical, its tip level with upper margin of lower 

 eye, its curve uniting without sensible depression with that of nape; 

 dorsal outline rising with a regular gentle curve from snout to about 

 twenty-second dorsal ray, thence declining very gradually and regularly 

 with but slight curvature to caudal i)eduucle; abdominal outline almost 

 straight from knob of mandible to ventral; from thence to <nid of anal 

 curved in same manner as dorsal outline; peduncle of tail expanded 

 toward caudal, its least width about | of greatest depth of body ; greatest 

 distance from anal to lateral lino less than length of head. Eyes large, 

 elliptical, the lower in advance of the upper about \ length of pupil, and 

 scarcely reaching dorsal profile anteriorly. Interocular space very narrow, 

 about ^ of longitudinal diameter of eye, smooth ; not raised above the eye 

 in a fresh fish; a slight ridge rising at its posterior part, forming lower 

 posterior margin of upper eye, and dying out on cheek. Nostrils of right 

 side level with upper margin of lower eye; anterior nostril with a short 

 tube, the posterior with a raised margin, and vertical with the front mar- 

 gin of the lower orbit; posterior nostril of blind side in advance of eye; 

 anterior nostril nearly as on <oloredside; nostrils small and ineouspicnous. 

 Gape of mouth very small on colored side, considerably larger on blind 

 side; on the colored side the cleft is nearer vertical than horizontal; pos- 

 terior end of maxillary reaching very little behind anterior margin of orbit 

 of lower eye, and the symphysis of intermaxillaries about level with upper 

 edge of orbit; mandible projecting in the closed mouth, short, not passing 

 a vertical from front margin of pupil, with a prominent knob below the 

 symphysis, and a smaller cue at its posterior extremity. Teeth on both 

 sides of jaws throughout the full length of the gape, in a single row, broad, 

 but thick, forming a blunt, continuous edge, about 34 in lower jaw and 

 rather fewer in the upper, in an individual ll-,3,. inches long ; in an example 

 14f inches long there were 14 teeth on the colored side and 26 on the blind 

 side of the mandible, the latter the larger; in the intermaxillaries, 13 on 

 the colored side and 23 on the blind side; each lower pharyngeal with a 

 double row of teeth, the inner laiger than the outer ; the 4 anterior teeth of 

 outer row conspicuously larger than those following ; about 12 teeth in each 

 inner row; upper pharyngeals each with a close-set row of 6 or 7 blunt 

 conical teeth. Branchiostegals 7; gill rakers few, flexible, very short. 

 Dorsal commencing between front of orbit and pupil, considerably behind 

 nostrils, long and low, forming a continuous arch of slightly greater curva- 

 ture than dorsal outline, the longest rays in central portion, and ending 

 opposite anal at about 3 of width of caudal peduncle from origin of caudal ; 

 anal with a- horizcmtal spine, the first ray rather distant from the visible^ 

 portion of the spine, and nearly length of ventral liehind pectoral base, sim- 

 ilar to the <lorsal ; almost all the rays of <lorsal and anal directly backward ; 

 caudal convex on posterior margin, rather narrow, the rays once bifurcate, 



