1980 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



sal, and a fourth on end of caudal peduncle ; ground color unusually pale. 

 In a highly colored male the lower iiurt of sides is blackish, provided with 

 roundish, large, white spots, the margins of which are often made con- 

 spicuous by a series of minute black sjiecks; fins conspicuously barred. 

 In most specimens a broad band of the light giound color crosses occipital 

 region and extends backward and downward, including margin of pre- 

 opercle above the spines and the greater portion of opercle. Arctic Ocean 

 and Bering Sea; Unalaska and Bristol Bay; taken by the Alhai7-oss at 

 depths of 5 to 30 fathoms, and taken by Mr. Scofield at Kings Island, 

 Port Clarence, and Grantly Harbor; originally recorded from Plover Bay. 

 (Gilbert.) Here described from adult specimens 10 inches long, (ven-n- 

 CO8US, warty.) 

 Coitus verntcoms, Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., iv, 1881, 152, Plover Bay, Siberia (Coll. T. 



H. Bean); Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 707, 1883. 

 Acanthocottus vernicosvs, Gu.bert, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. (1893) 1896,421; Scofield, in 



Jordan & Gilbert, Kept. Fur Seal Invest., 1898. 



2354. MYOXOCEPHALUS AXILLARIS (Gill). 



Head 2|; horizontal diameter of orbit 5 in bead and IV in snout; inter- 

 orbital space 6 in head; depth ii; maxillary reaching vertical with poste- 

 rior edge of eye, 2*^ in head; D. IX or X, 1.5 or 16; A. 11 or 12; pectoral 15 

 or 16; caudal with 9 branched rays; lateral line 40. Head wide and 

 depressed; mouth horizontal; lower jaw included; nasal spme well devel- 

 oped, but completely covered by the skin. Preopercle with a straight spine 

 at its ui>per angle almost covered with skin and equal in length to vertical 

 diameter of orbit; a second spine immediately below this, ccimpletely 

 covered by the skin and i as long as upper spine; at the lower angle of 

 the preopercle there is a tuberch- ; opercle with a strong horizontal spine 

 at its upper angle, completely embedded in the membrane and not reach- 

 ing edge of gill liap. At the lower angle of the opercle there is a small, 

 downward-directed spine, also com]dt^tely covered by skin; suprascajtular 

 spine well developed, but completely emliedded; humeral spine blunt and 

 covered; occipital ridges scarcely elevated, a slight pineal elevation; 4 

 broad, conspicuous tentacles corres])Oiiding to the po.sitions of the supra- 

 ocular and occljjital tubercles; orbital rims considerably elevated, having 

 a flat, depressed sjiace between them; top of the head covered with small, 

 wart-like elevations. Lateral line inconspicuous, without plates, its pores 

 distant and small; above the lateral line a row of osseous plates, smaller 

 and more closely placed beneath tlie second dorsal ; a similar scattered 

 row below the lateral line just beneath the second dorsal; longest ray of 

 first dorsal (the fourth or fifth) 2i times in head, first 6 rays about equal 

 in length; second dorsal higher and about the same shape as the first, the 

 longest ray lyo in head; caudal truncated, the corners about square; pec- 

 torals large and reaching to second ray of anal ; ventrals scarcely reaching 

 vent. Color above quite dark, strongly marked with black and white; a 

 saddle of black under the anterior f of first dorsal; 2 similar but smaller 

 saddle markings over the back below the second dorsal, 1 l)eneath the 

 anterior, the other beneath the posterior end; a black blotch on the side 



