382 



BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



forward almost to the front of the premaxillaries. No trace of a 

 mandibular barbel can be detected on any of the specimens. Small 

 inclosed pseudobranchiae are present on all specimens, and are 

 located, as in the other species, beside a deep conic pit. The gill- 

 rakers are always denticulate along their 'inner edges, but arc 

 variable in width and in length ; the longest one, near the angle of 

 the first gill arch, is contained 1.8 (1.2 to 1.6) times in the orbit; 

 the number of gill-rakers is 6+20 on the left, and 6+22 on the 

 right side of the type (6 or 5+19 to 21 in paratypes). Four full 

 gills are present, the last of which is short, and followed by a slit 

 about half as wide as the interorbital space. The branchial aperture 

 is continued forward almost to the vertical from the anterior orbital 

 margin. Seven branchiostegals. As in B. antrodes, the scapular 



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foramen, though encroaching entirely upon the substance of the 

 hypercoracoid, is in contact with the suture separating that bone 

 from the hypocoracoid. 



The scales which separate the lateral line series from the front of 

 the second dorsal fin are arranged in six horizontal series. Several 

 much enlarged scales or scale-like bones are present in the sensory 

 canal above the gill openings. The shoulder girdle is scaleless be- 

 neath the opercles. 



The first dorsal spine is soft and concealed, but is slender, sharp, 

 and about one-fifth as long as the orbit; the smooth second dorsal 

 spine is contained 1.6 times in the head; the second pectoral and the 

 outermost ventral rays are likewise scarcely strengthened or pro- 

 duced. In this respect B. spongiceps differs notably from B. an- 

 trodes, in which the three rays are strengthened and greatly length- 

 ened. The base of the ventral fin is anterior to the base of the 

 pectoral, which is nearly in line with the origin of the first dorsal. 

 The distance from the center of the anus to the base of the outer 

 ventral ray is contained 1.6 (to 1.8) times in the head. 



