750 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMKRICxVN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
Family CXII.— BATRACIIID.E.* 
[The Toad -fishes.) 
Body generally robust, depre.ssed anteriorly, eoiiipressed behind ; 
head large, depressed, its inuciferons channels well develoi)ed; month 
very large, the teeth generally strong; premaxillaries protractile; gills 
3, a slit behind the last; ])sendobranchiin none; gill-openings restrict(‘d 
to the sides, the nieinbraues broadly united to the isthmus; brancliios- 
tegals mostly b; gill-rakers i)resent, moderate; suborbital without bony 
stay; ])ost-temporal bone simple, undivided; scales small, cycloid, or 
wanting. Dorsal tins 2, the first of two or three low, stout spines; 
soft dorsal very long; anal fin similar, but shorter; ventrals rather 
large, jugular, I, 2 or I, 3; pectorals very broad, the rays branched; 
pyloric c(Pca none; tail diphycercal, the caudal fin distinct, rounded, 
('aruivorous coast fishes, mostly of the warm seas; the young of some 
or all the species fasten themselves to rocks by means of an adhesive 
ventral disk, which soon disappears. Genera 5; species about 12. 
4 
(Batrachidw Giiiitlier, iii, 1G6-177.) 
a. Body naked. 
i. Lateral line obsolete ; dorsal spines 3 Batraciius, 308. 
bb. Lateral lines several, each formed of sliiniug bodies imbedded in the skin, 
accompanied by pores and miunte cirri; no axillary foramen; dorsal si)ines 2. 
* POlilCUTIIYS, 300. 
3t>§. — I5ATKACIIUS Bloch & Schneider. 
(Klein; Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth. 1801, 42: type Gachts fait L.) 
Body comparatively short and robust, scaleless; head large, de- 
pressed; jaws, vomer, and palatines each with a single series of strong 
blunt teeth; mandilfie with an additional external series at symithysis; 
teeth of npiter jaw small; dentary bones forming an acute angle at 
symphysis; lips fieshy; upper angle of opercle with 2 diverging sjtiues, 
more or less concealed in the skin; spinous dorsal of 3 stout short 
spines, the second the longest; no lateral line nor conspicuous pores; 
young with series of small tufted cirri on back and sides; branchioste- 
gals fi; vertebrai 12 -|-22. [iSa-pd-^aq^ a frog.) 
a. Axil of pectoral with a large foramen. 
1149. B. tsisa (Liim.) Cuv. & Val. — Toad-fish; Oi/ster-fish ; Sarjto. , 
Dusky olive, with black markings conlluent on the sides and forming 
irregular, indistinct bars; belly and under side of head lighter; fins 
Family “114” of the key on page 80. 
