56 (b). MASTACEMBELID^ PTILICHTHYS. 369 
the Xorth Pacific, the osteology of which is unknown, and which may 
really belong to the Acanthopten. 
( Mastacembclklce Giinther, iii, 539 - 543 . ) 
a. Scales none or rudimentary; body very elongate, tapering backward to a point. 
{rtilichtlujinw.) 
b. Lower jaw with a projecting fleshy appendage at tip; gill-membranes broadly 
united Ptiliciithys, 179. 
179.— PTIL,ICIITHVS Bean. 
(Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns. iv, 1881: type Ptilichthys goodei Jieiin.) 
Body extremely elongate, serpentiform, little compressed, the tail 
tapering to a point. Skin naked, or with a few thin, loose, scattered 
scales; no lateral line. Head unarmed, rather small; upper jaw not 
protractile; snout short; mouth oblique; lower jaw projecting consid- 
erably beyond the upper, with a protruding fleshy appendage at tip. 
Maxillary reaching the front of eye. Mandible little movable. Both 
jaws with fine, close-set, sharp teeth, in one row, the posterior teeth a 
little the largest ; no evident teeth on vomer or palatines. Gill-open- 
ings restricted to below the most convex ])art of the opercle ; the mem- 
branes broadly united below, free from the isthmus. Gills 4, a slit 
behind the fourth. Pseudobrauchiic very small, almost obsolete. Gill- 
rakers short and stout. Pectorals short; ventrals wanting; dorsal 
beginning close behind the nape; the anterior portion fo^ about half 
the length of the body composed of very low, stiff, free spines, hooked 
backwards, the posterior i^ortion higher, of slender soft rays connected 
by thin membrane. No caudal fin, the tip of the tail free. Anal sim- 
ilar to the soft dorsal, without spines. Vent at considerable distance 
from the head. North Pacific. {--{Xov, quill ; lyOuc; fish.) 
594. P. goodei Bean. 
Orange or yellowish, the body with a blackish longitudinal stripe, the 
anal darker in color than the dorsal. Eye rather large, as long as snout, 
5 in head ; cheeks and opercles long; pectoral fin half as long as the 
head; soft dorsal and anal deeper than tbe body posteriorly, the anal 
a little lower than the dorsal. Vent near the end of the anterior third 
of the body ; distance from the vent to the beginning of the soft dorsal 
3^ times the length of the head ; length of head twice its greatest dejith, 
5^ in the distance to the vent ; appendage of mandible half as long 
as eye ; free tip of caudal two-thirds eye. Dorsal spines 90 ; soft rays 
of dorsal 145 ; of anal about 185 ; P. 12. L. about 12 inches. Aleutian 
Islands. 
(Beau, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns. iv, 1881.) 
Bull. Nat. Mus. No. IG 24 
