113. PLEURONECTID^ — PLEURONICHTHYS. 
829 
short, blunt snout; mouth small, with several series of slender, acute 
teeth, which are most developed on the blind side, and are often want- 
ing in one or both jaws on the colored side; no teeth on vomer or pala- 
tines; lips thick, with several lengthwise folds, within which is a series 
of short fringes. Lower pharyngeals narrow, each with a double row 
of very small teeth. Gill-rakers wide-set, very short and weak. Lat- 
eral line nearly straight, with a dorsal branch in our species. Scales 
small, cycloid, non-imbricate, imbedded. Dorsal fin anteriorly twisted 
from the dorsal ridge toward the blind side; anal fin preceded by a 
spine; caudal fin convex behind. Intestinal canal elongate. Herbiv- 
orous species, feeding chiefly on algm. Pacific Ocean, (-/sujooy, side; 
fish.) 
a. Dorsal tin beginning on the level of the lower lip; interocnlar ridge with blunt 
or sharpish tubercles. 
1 ' 277 , P. deciirreiis J. & G. 
Color brownish, usually much mottled with chocolate and grayish, 
often finely spotted with brownish on body and fins. Eyes very large, 
in head ; a blunt tubercle in front of upper eye, another at each end 
of the narrow interorbital ridge, the posterior largest, but usually not 
spine-like; two or three above the latter behind the upper eye; some 
prominences above the opercle; a band of teeth on the right side of 
the lower jaw, similar to that on the blind side, but narrower. Ver- 
tical fins high, the longest dorsal and anal rays two-thirds the length 
of the head. Dorsal beginning very low, on level of end of maxillary, 
its first nine rays on the blind side. Head 3|; depth 14. D. 72; A. 40 
L. 12 inches. Coast of California; rather common in deep water. 
(PlenronicbthijS coenosus Lockington, Proc. tJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1879, 97. Plearonichthya 
quadriiiibercidatiis .Jor. & Gilb. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 50, ncc Pallas; Jordan Oo 
Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 453.) 
aa. Dorsal tin beginning on the level of the upper lip. 
b. Interocnlar ridge posteriorly with a stroug, backward-directed sijino. 
127§. P. verticals Jordan & Gilbert. 
Color dark olive brown, mottled with lighter and darker, sometimes 
with light grayish spots ; middle of sides often v/ith a dark spot ocel- 
lated with light olive, this again surrounded by darker; fins light, often 
tinged and margined with reddish, and mottled with blackish. Eyes 
large, 3^ in head ; a tubercle in front of each eye, and one at anterior 
end of interorbital ridge; posterior end of ridge with a strong, sharp, 
backward directed spine; a tubercle behind upper eye; right side of 
lower jaw without teeth. Dorsal and anal fins lower than in P. dccur- 
