107. COTTIDJi — OLIGOCOTTUS. 
717 
extend on the fins; belly livid bluish or green, reticulated with 
olive; the ground color is exceedingly variable, ranging from cherry- 
red to green; lips blotched with white; fins all more or less barred; 
flesh and membranes livid bluish. Top of head rugose, without spines; 
interorbital space concave, narrower than the large eye; a fleshy flap 
on middle of snout, and one on end of maxillary; superciliary cirri 
large, more than half diameter of orbit, laciniate; upper preopercular 
spine short, straight, about half diameter of eye; suborbital stay very 
broad; maxillary extending to beyond eye. First four spines of dorsal 
subequal, shorter than the fifth; dorsal fins scarcely connected at base; 
pectorals shortish, not reaching anal. Skin thick and leathery, with- 
out prickles or cirri. Head 3; depth 4. Eye 6 in head. D. XI-18; 
A. 12; P. 15; V. I, 5 ; Lat. 1. (pores) 80; pyloric coeca about 30; ver- 
tebrm 15 +21. L. 30 inches. Puget Sound to San Diego; very abun- 
dant. The largest of our Cottirlcc, reaching a weight of 10 to 15 pounds. 
{HemUripterus marmoratus Ayres, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 1854, 4; Girard, U. S. Pac. 
R. R. Surv. Fish. 64; Giiuther, ii, 154.) 
377.— OL,I«OCOTTUS Girard. 
{Clinocottus and Blennicottus Gill.) 
(Girard, Proc, Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila. 1856, 133: type Oligocottus macitlosns Girard.) 
Body rather elongate, the skin smooth or provided with some small 
prickly scales; preopercular spines short, simple or furcate; small ten- 
•tacles on head and anterior parts of body; gill-membranes broadly 
united, free from the isthmus; a slit behind fourth gill; dorsal spines 
slender, the fin short and not emarginate; anal papilla large; ventrals 
I, 3, or I, 4. Small fishes of the Xorth Pacific, inhabiting rock-pools 
between tide-marks. small; y.ozruq^ Cottus.) 
a. Mouth with distinct lateral cleft; the head narrow anteriorly. 
1). Skin with imbedded, prickle-like scales. (Clinocottus Gill.*) 
not!. O, analas Grd. 
Olivaceous, much mottled, and with numerous small black and white 
spots; about five irregular darker bars; a dark bar at base of caudal; 
fins all spotted; cirri very numerous, mostly whitish, giving the fish a 
woolly appearance in life. Head narrower anteriorly and rather pointed ; 
mouth with lateral cleft, the maxillary reaching beyond pupil; baud of 
palatine teeth short and narrow; eye large, 5 in head, about twice the 
width of the deeply-grooved interorbital space; nasal spines distant 
* Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1881, 166: type OityocoiO/s a»a/is Grd. (CUnus; 
Coitus , ) 
