103. URAXOSCOPID^. 
627 
ventrals close together, thoracic, but behind the pectorals, I, 5, the 
middle rays longest; caudal lunate, with many accessorj’ rays, on a 
slender peduncle. Two species known, from the Xorth Pacific. 
(TracMnidce, genus Tricliodon Giintlier, ii, 250.) 
337.— TRICII©I><I>]V Steller. 
(Steller; Cuvier, Regne Auim. ii, 1829: type Trnchinvs tricliodon Tilesius.) 
Characters of the genus included above. {OpiS, hair; odwv^ tooth.) 
075. T. sSelleri Cuv. &. Val. — Sand-fish. 
Olivaceous silvery, the back darker, with short bars and reticula- 
tions of blackish, the latter chiefly on the head and nuchal region; be- 
low this a longitudinal narrow white stripe, and then a narrow black 
stripe, interrujited anteriorly, extending from the eye to the base of 
the caudal; spinous dorsal with 2 lengthwise bauds of black; chin and 
snout black. Eye large, placed high, 3 in head; maxillarj^ extendmg 
to beyond its middle; the premaxillary near the level of its upper edge; 
cheek quadrate, as deep as long. Pectorals reaching past vent, the 
lower raj-s rapidly shortened, the width of its base f its length, two- 
thirds the length of the head; anterior rays of anal less than half the 
height of the posterior. Head 3J; depth the same. D. XY-18; A. 9, 
19. L. 12 inches. Coast of Alaska, south to San Francisco, burying 
itself in the sand near the shore; not rare northward. 
{Trachinns tricliodon Tiles. Mem. Ac. Petersb. 1813, 466; Cuv. & Val. iii, 154; Giin- 
ther, ii, 251: Tricliodon Uneatus Ayres, Proc. Acad. Xat. Sci. Pbila. 1860, 60.) 
Family GUI.— URAXOSGOPID.E. 
{The Star Gazers.) 
Body more or less elongate, conic, terete or snbcompressed, widest 
and usually deepest at the occiput. Scales small, smooth, adherent, 
arranged in very oblique series, rarely wanting. Lateral line feeble or 
obsolete. Head cuboid, partly mailed above. Eyes small, anterior, on 
the top of the head. Mouth vertical, the mandible strong and promi- 
nent; lips more or less conspicuously fringed; teeth moderate, on the 
jaws, and usually on vomer and palatines also; premaxillaries iirotrac- 
tile; maxillary broad, without supplemental bone, not slipping under 
the preorbital. Gill-openings very wide, continued forwards; gill- 
membranes nearly separate, free from the isthmus. Brauchiostegals 0. 
