650 COXTRIBUTIOXS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY — lY. 
those ill the lower jaw iu a single series laterally, and in a narrow band 
in front; upper jaw, vomer, and palatines each with a baud of similar 
teeth. Head entirely scaly. Ko supraorbital flap. Preopercle un- 
armed, its membranaceous edge creimlate. Gill-membranes joined 
to the isthmus. Body entirely covered with minute ctenoid scales. 
Lateral line single. Dorsals short, well separated, the first of slender, 
flexible spines ; second dorsal shorter, similar th the anal, which is pre- 
ceded by three weak spines ; ventrals but little behind pectorals; caudal 
flu forked. Peritoneum black. Pyloric coeca about two, long and slen- 
der. Gill-rakers slender, few, not very short. North Pacific. (wv/otAo?, 
unarmed; -w/jLa, operculum.) 
1006. A. fiaiiton'ia (Pallas) Gill. — Beshoiv; CoaJ-fish. 
Color slaty-black or grayish, somewhat reticulated; white below, the 
young rather pale ; adult nearly black ; fins dusky; caudal edged with 
pale; lining of the opercle black. Premaxillaries on the level of the 
lower part of the orbit ; maxillary reaching to opposite front of pupil. 
Dorsal fins separated by a distance nearly equal to two-thirds length of 
the base of soft dorsal, the spines very weak; the fourth longest; pec- 
torals reaching beyond tips of ventrals, not half way to vent. Ilead 4; 
depth 0:^. D. XX-1, 17; A. HI, 15; Lat. 1. 100. Usual length 18 inches, 
but sometimes much larger. Monterey to Alaska; rather common, es- 
pecially northward. A very singular and interesting fish. 
{Gadas fimbria Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. iii, 200, 1811: Anoplopoma merlangus 
Ayres, Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1859, 27 : Scombrocottus salmoneus Peters, Berlin. 
Mouatsber.) 
Family CVI — SCORPyENID^. 
{The Rock- fishes.) 
Cottoid fishes, with the bod}^ oblong, more or less compressed, the head 
generallj" large, and usually with one or more pairs Jf ridges above, 
which terminate in spines. Opercle usually with two spinous pro- 
cesses; preo])ercle with five. Mouth terminal, usually large, with 
villiform teeth on jaws and vomer, and usually on the palatines. Pre- 
maxillaries protractile; maxillary broad, without supplemental bone, 
not slipping under preorbital. Gill-openings wide ; the gill-membranes 
separate and free from the isthmus; usually no slit behind the fourth 
gill. Scales ctenoid, or sometimes cycloid, usually well developed, 
sometimes nearly obsolete. Lateral line single. A bony stay extend- 
ing backward from the suborbital toward the preopercle. Ventral 
fins thoracic, of the normal j)ercoid form, I, 5, the rays branched ; dor- 
