1284 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museicm. 



9, the soft rays scaly at base; caudal short, forked. Color dusky pur- 

 plish without, membranes black within. Interorbital space flat, formed 

 as in Etelis. Froutals cavernous, with longitudinal osseus bars, leaving 

 interspaces in front of transverse ridge and on each side near the front; 

 supraorbital margins smooth ; prefrontals behind with simple foramina for 

 olfactory nerves. The genus is technically close to Etelis, although the 

 single known species is very dift'erent from Etelis ociilatus. The cavernous 

 character of the skull is the most striking feature of the genus Ferilus. 

 One species, in very deep water. (" Veril, a Spanish word, meaning ' haut 

 de fond coup6 a pic/ apparently an allusion to the form of the teeth. 

 'Ne vous mettez pas en peine sur I'origine du nom, les meilleurs, ue sont 

 pas les plus etymologiques, par cela memequ'ils ont une signification rare- 

 ment exclusive.'" — Poey.) 



1656. VEBILUS SOBDIDUS, Poey. 



(ESCOLAK CHINO.) 



Head 2f ; depth 3. D. IX, 10; A. Ill, 7; scales 4-43-9, 41 pores. Body 

 oblong, compressed, rather robust ; caudal peduncle short and thick ; head 

 large; profile almost straight from snout to origin of spinous dorsal, and 

 not at all steep ; snout very short and blunt, 4 in head; eye very large, 2| 

 in head; interorbital space flat, its width 4?^ in head; occipital keel very 

 loAv ; preorbital very narrow, 7 in eye, nearly 20 in head; maxillary reach- 

 ing middle of eye, 2 in head; mouth large, oblique, the lower .iaw pro- 

 jecting; upper jaw with a rather broad band of villiform teeth, the outer 

 row scarcely enlarged; 2 moderate canines in front of jaw, curved 

 inward; lower jaw Avith a single series of teeth on sides, this series 

 giving place to a very narrow villiform band in front, with 2 (some- 

 times duplicated) small canines directed nearly horizontally backward; 

 vomer with a narrowly V-shaped patch of teeth, without backward pro- 

 longation on median line; tongue and pterygoids without teeth. Gill 

 rakers numerous, their length almost half diameter of eye, 17 on the 

 lower part of the arch, all developed. Preopercle with posterior margin 

 weak and flexible, almost entire, becoming somewhat serrate at the angle 

 and on lower limb; no distinct emargination, but the angle salient, mem- 

 branaceous. Scales large, the rows horizontal below the lateral line; 

 those above rather irregular, the series running upward and backward; 

 head scaly everywhere, the scales generally smaller than on body ; opercle 

 with 3 rows of scales, very large, 1 row on subopercle ; cheeks with many 

 rows of scales, those in the middle very small; 1 or 2 rows on inter- 

 opercle; bases of soft dorsal and anal somewhat scaly. Pseudobranchiie 

 large. Branchiostegals 7. Spinous and soft dorsals entirely separate; 

 first spine 4^^ in second, which is 2^ in head, the spines thence becoming 

 gradually shorter to ninth spine, which about equals length of first spine; 

 last rays of dorsal and anal not produced ; margin of soft dorsal slightly 

 concave, the anterior rays longest, 2^ in head; anal similar to soft dorsal, 

 its margin rather more concave, first soft rays extending beyond tips of 

 last rays, when 4he fin is depressed; anal spines moderate, the third 

 slightly longer than second, 2| in head; caudal fin short, broad, moder- 



