NO. i;ms. IIEMIBRANCHIATE FISHES— JORDAN AND STARKS. 59 



ratlier short, unusually far behind the gill openinos, preceded by a 

 quadrate naked area, which is covered with shining skin. C'audal tin 

 narrow, usualW lunate. Air l)la(lder simple; a few pyloric c(eca. 

 Vertebne 30 to 35; anterior vertebra^ little enlarg-ed. 



Small tishes inhal^iting the fresh waters and arms of the sea in 

 northern Europe and America; noted for their pugnacity. They are 

 exceedingly destructive to the spaAvn and fry of large tishes. 



(I. (4ill openings restricted, the meml)ranes mesially united to tlie isthmus; dorsal 



with two free spines; skin mailed, partly mailed, or naked Gasterosteus, 1. 



ail. Gill openings confluent, the gill membranes forming a broad, free margin across 

 the isthmus; dorsal spines 8 to 11, divergent; skin naked or mailed. 



Pi/gosieus, 2. 



1. GASTEROSTEUS (Artedi) Linnaeus. 



Gasterosteus (Artedi) Linn^us, Syst. Nat., X, 1758, p. 489 (nculeatus). 

 Gasteracanthus Pallas, Mem. Ac. St. Petersb., Ill, 1811, p. 325 {cataphr actus). 

 ie'iuTO.s SwAiNSON, Nat. Hist. Class' n Fishes, II, 1839, p. 242 {gijmmirus). 



Sticklebacks with the innominate bones coalescent on the median 

 line of the belly, behind and between the ventral tins, forming a 

 triangular or lanceolate plate. Gill membranes united to the isthnms. 

 Tail slender, and usually keeled. Skin variousl}^ covered with bony 

 plates. Dorsal spines 3 in number, strong, with nondivergent bases. 

 Species numerous. Fresh waters and shores of all northern regions; 

 the species highly variable, those found in the sea usually with the 

 body completely mailed, the fresh and brackish water forms variously 

 mailed or even altogether naked. It is probable that the reduction in 

 armature is in some degree connected with life in fresh waters. It is 

 almost certain that the partly naked forms are in each species derived 

 from mailed forms of the same region. 



{yaffT7}p^he\\y; offtsov^ bone.) 



I. GASTEROSTEUS CATAPHRACTUS (Pallas). 

 TOGEUWO (PRICKLY-FISH). 



Gasteracanthus cataphrartus Pallas, Mem. Acad. Petersb., Ill, 1811, p. 325; 



Kamchatka. 

 Gasterosteus obolarius Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., TV, 1829, p. 



500; Kamchatka. 

 Gasterosteus viscvlptus Kichardson, Last Arctic Voyage, 1854, p. 10, pi. xxv, 



figs. 1, 2, and 3; Northumberland and Puget sounds. 

 G(usterosteus serratiis Ayres, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 1855, p. 47; San Francisco. — 



Sauvage, Revision des Fipinoches, 1874, p. 13. 

 Gasterosteus rnter^nedius CiiHAiU), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1856, p. 135; Cape 



Flattery. 

 Gasterosteus aculeatus cataphractus Jordan and Gilbert, Synopsis, 1883, p. 396. 

 Gasterosteus cataphractus Jordan and Evermann, Fishes N. and M. Amer., I, 



1898, p. 749. 

 Gasterosteus aculeatus Ishikaava, Prel. Cat., 1897, p. 58; Hokkaido, Kuriles, Ugo, 



Yechigo, Shimotsuke, ^lusashi, l^sen, Niigata. 

 Gasterosteus tvilliamsoid GuiAKT), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1854, p. 103; Wil- 

 liamson's Pass, near Saugus, California; naked form. 



