2738 Bulletin ^j^ United States National Museum. 



3121. OGCOCEPHALUS RADEATCS (MitchiU). 

 (Short-nosed Bat-Fish.) 



Head 2. Dorsal 4; A. 4. Rostral cavity somewhat broader than high, 

 or width equal to height; distance between anterior angles of orbits 

 about equal to that between the posterior angles; eye a little wider than 

 interorlntal width ; snout, exclusive of rostral tubercle, not produced 

 beyond the rostral cavity, but with a cylindrical button-like tubercle, 

 slightly contracted at base, pointing obliquely upward and forward, its 

 length 25 times in liody ; posterior edge of pectoral slightly nearer base of 

 caudal than upper jaw; caudal peduncle very thick and heavy; vent 

 about midway between tip of jaw and base of caudal iin. Color brownish, 

 with dark round spots sometimes edged with white; pectorals with a net- 

 work of white lines dividing the dark color into dark brown spots; tip 

 of caudal blackish, belly coppery red. Length 8 to 12 inches. Coast of 

 Florida and neighboring waters; very common in shallow bays among 

 weeds, especially about the Florida Keys. Here described from a speci- 

 men from Cedar Key, Florida, 7 to 8 inches in length, {radiatus, rayed.) 



Lophius radiatus, Mitchh.l, Amer. Monthly Mag., March, 1818, 326, Straits of the 



Bahamas. 

 Malthe cubifruns, Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Anier., in, 103, 1S36, said to be from Labrador 



(ColL J. J. Audubon), hut thia is certainly an error; Audubon collected also in 



Carolina and Florida; Gunthek, Cat., iii, 203,1861; Jordan &, Gilbert, Synopsis, 850, 



1883; Jordan, Cat. Fishes, 139, 1885. 

 ? Malthcea truncata, CvvmR & Valenciennes, Hist. Kat. Poiss., xii, 454, 1837, America ; 



snout wholly obsolete; perhaps a species of Zalicutcs. 

 MaUhtea angnsta, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xii, 454, 1837, Dutch Guiana; 



snout more than 20 in length. 



1073. ZALIEUTES, .Jordan & Evermann. 



Zalieute.t, Jordan & Evermann, Check-List Fish. N. and M. A., 511, 1896 (elater). 



Disk wider than long, about as long as rest of body (including caudal 

 fin); middle line of head elevated, but the forehead not projecting beyond 

 mouth; rosiral tentacle present, the cavity about as wide as high; mouth 

 small; minute teeth on vomer and palatines. Gills 2i. Eastern Paciiic. 

 The genus is very close to Malthopsis, Alcock,* but the latter, like Ogco- 

 cephalus, has the disk longer than broad, but the gills are reduced to 2. 

 (CtiA?/, surge of the sea; dXisvrrfg, fisher.) 



8122. ZALIEUTES ELATER (Jordan & Gilbert). 



Body very broad and depressed, the disk considerably broader than 

 long, its width 1? times in length of Itody ; back and snout considerably 

 raised above rest of body; greatest depth of body scarcely more than 

 width of mouth. Mouth small, its width A greater than diameter of 

 orl)it; snout very short, scarcely projecting beyond mouth, its length 



* Malthopsis, AhCOCK, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1891, 26; Malthopsis luteus, from the 

 Andaman Sea; Malthopsis mitriger, Gilbert & Cramer, Proc. D. S. Nat. Mua. 1896, 434, 

 with plate, off Hawaiian Islands. 



