2012 Bul/ethi 47, United States National nhiscum. 



2379. LEPTOCOTTUS ARMATUS, Girard. 



(Smooth Cabezon.) 



Head 3 in lenfrtli; depth 6. D. VII, 17; A. 17; V. I, 4. Head long and 

 depressed; mouth large, the maxillary reachiug beyond eye ; interorbital 

 space broad, scarcely concave; nasal spines concealed; top of head flat- 

 tish, covered with rugose skin ; upper preopercular spine with 3 or 4 spin- 

 ules hooked upward; suborbital stay slender, not reaching preopercle; 

 eye very small, less than interocular width, 7^ in head; lateral lino com- 

 plete; skin everywhere smooth; no prickles nor cirri. Dorsal spines very 

 slender and low ; pectorals reaching or extending beyond vent; ventrals 

 halfway to vent. Grayish olive above, becoming abruptly white and 

 silvery below; sides creamy; pectoral fins creamy yellow, with 5 or 6 

 black cross bars; spinous dorsal dusky, with an ink-like blotch on tip of 

 last rays, and an oblique white band below; soft dorsal dusky with sev- 

 eral oblique white bauds; caudal banded; ventrals and anal plain. 

 Length 12 inches. Pacific Coast from Kadiak to San Diego ; everywhere 

 very common, the most abundant of the Cottoids of our west coast; liv- 

 ing near shore. It flattens the head and expands the preopercular spines 

 when disturbed, {armatus, armed.) 



Leptoeottus armatus, Girard, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1854, 131, Cape Flattery, Fort Steil- 

 acoom, AVillapa Bay, Humboldt Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, San Pedro, Fort 

 Point, San Diego, Tomales Bay (Coll. Dr. Suckley, Dr. Cooper, Lieut. Trowbridge, 

 etc.) ; GiEARD, XJ. S. Pac. R. E. Surv., x, Fish., 60, 1858; Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 

 714, 1883. 



Oentridermichthyn armatus, GOnthek, Cat., ii, 171, 1860. 



744. CLINOCOTTUS, Gill. 

 Clinocottus, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1861, 166 (analis). 



This genus differs from Oligocottiis in having the skin of the sides of 

 body mesially, covered more or less thickly with minute prickly scales 

 embedded in the skin ; anteriorly, forked cirri take the place of scales ; 

 mouth with lateral cleft ; preopercular sjiine short, bifurcate. Small fishes 

 of the California rock pools. {Clinits; Cottiis.) 



aSSO. CLIXOCOTTCS AXALIS (Girard). 



Head Si; depth 4i. D. IX, 16 to 18; A. 13 or 14; V. I, 3; P. 15. Head 

 narrower anteriorly and rather pointed; mouth with lateral cleft, the 

 maxillary reaching beyond pupil ; band of palatine teeth short and nar- 

 row, often absent on one side or on both ; eye large, 5 in head, about twice 

 the width of the deeply grooved interorbital space ; nasal spines distant 

 from snout; preopercular spine short, bifurcate; cranium plane above; 

 upper part of body mesially covered with minute, embedded, nonimbri- 

 cated, pectinate scales ; anteriorly, small cirri, mostly bifid or tFifid, take 

 the place of the scales. Head, especially above, with very many similar 

 cirri; a fringe of cirri on edge of preopercle. Dorsal fins contiguous, 

 rather low ; pectoral reaching past front of anal ; anal papilla very large. 



