186 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY III. 



Genus CYCLEPTUS Bafinesgue. 



Cychptus Kafinksque, Jourual de Physique, do Chimie et d'Histoire Naturello, Paris, 



1819, p. 421. 

 lihyiidosloniKS Heckel, Fische Syriens, Russegger's Reisen, 1842, p, 1023. 

 Caiontomun et Sclvrognathus s]}. Auct. 



Type, Cydeptus nigrescens Rafinesque, = Catoslomus eloiigatus Le Sueur. 

 Etymology, /ct'/cAof, round ; AfTrrOf, small. "The aame meaus small, round mouth" 

 (Rafinesque). 



Head very small, short and slender, its length contained 6 to 7 times 

 in that of the body, its upper surface rounded ; eye quite small, nearly 

 median, not very high up, its length C to 8 in that of the side of the 

 head; suborbital bones rather small and quite narrow; fontauelle en- 

 tirely obliterated bj^ the union of the parietal bones. 



Mouth small, entirely inferior, overlapped by the projecting snout, 

 the upper lip thick, pendent, covered with 3 to 5 rows of tubercles, the 

 outer quite large, the inner small; lower liij moderate, formed some- 



ably short, extending little more than half way to vent, originating under posterior 

 third of dorsal. Pectorals well separated. Isthmus wide. 



" Color above blackish, with a strong inferior marginal shade on the lower part of the 

 sides, and the lighter tint above ; a brown spot just above axilla, is cut off from it by 

 a band of the yellow color which covers the belly and head below. 



" The only species concerning which any doubt can arise in the nomenclature of this 

 one is C. hernardini of Girard. That writer states that the latter possesses' 15 D. radii ; 

 this, with the ascription of a slender form and other peculiarities, will always sepa- 

 rate them. Three species in Professor Hayden's collection without locality. This 

 should be probably a tributary of Green River." — (Cope, Hayden's Geol. Surv. Terr. 

 1872, p. 436.) 



MiNOMUS BARDXJS Copc. — " This species is distinguished by its very short head, and 

 marked coloration, resembling in that respect the C. guzmaniensis of Girard ; with this 

 species, it has, however, nothing else in common. 



"Head wide, muzzle not projecting beyond upper lip; latter not pendent, with nar- 

 row, smooth commissure and three or four rows of tubercles. Lower lip deeply incised, 

 tubercular to near inner edge. Eye 5.25 times in length of head, twice in inter- 

 orbital width. Head five times to end of basal caudal scales. Form stout : body cylin- 

 dric anteriorly. Dorsal fin nearer end of muzzle than end of caudal scales. Scales of 

 body subequal, in thirty longitudinal rows between dorsal and ventral fins, latter orig- 

 inating beneath hinder border of dorsal, not quite reaching vent. Pectorals well sepa- 

 rate; isthmus wide, narrower than in AT. delpliiuus. Color blacki.sh above, a broad 

 olive bund from upper part of opercular border along upper half of caudal peduncle, 

 and a bread black band below, narrowing to a line along the middle of the peduncle; 

 below, yellowish, a band of the same cutting oft' a blackish area above the axilla, as 

 in the last species." — (Cope, Hayden's Geol. Surv. Terr. 1872, p. 43G.) 



