412 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ward; the preopercular margin is arched evenly forward above the 

 rounded angle; the oblique suborbital ridge is little curved down- 

 ward; it extends from below the anterior nostril to below the hind 

 margin of the orbit. The snout is equal in length to that of the 

 round orbit, each being contained 3.7 times in the head (in all three 

 specimens). The interorbital width is narrow, being contained 5.0 

 (4.65 to 6.0) times in the head; the least suborbital width is slightly 

 less than half the orbital length. The moderately oblique upper 

 jaw extends from below the lateral rostral tubercle to below the 

 front edge of the pupil (to past vertical from center of eye in the 

 smaller paratypes) ; its length is contained 3.4 (3.2 to 3.5) times 

 in the head, being greater than the length of the snout. The outer 

 series of teeth in the premaxillary band are stouter and more widely 

 spaced than the others. The barbel is variable; it is slender in the 

 type, in which it is contained 2.6 times in the orbit; slender in the 

 paratype from station 5215, 2.4 in orbit; very thick and much 

 longer in the other paratype, from station 5124, 1.6 in orbit. The 

 gill-membranes are united without a free fold. • Six branchiostegal 

 rays. The slit before the first gill-arch is reduced, 3.5 in orbit; the 

 gill-rakers are rudimentary. 



Eight (or nine in a paratype) rows of scales separate the front 

 of the second dorsal fin from the lateral line series (six below last 

 ray of first dorsal fin) ; 18 rows of scales were counted from the 

 lateral line downward and backward to the origin of the anal. The 

 scales are reduced in size on the belly and on the head exclusive 

 of the opercular region. The gular and branchiostegal membranes 

 are wholly naked. The spinules on the scales are definitely arranged 

 in parallel or subparallel series, and no definite quincunx order can 

 be made out except on some of the scales on the head and on the 

 back before the dorsal fin; each scale of the body bears about 15 

 (11 to 16) of these series. There are no carinae, as each spinule 

 rises independently from the surface of the scale. The individual 

 spinules are of subequal size and of conic form ; the last one of 

 each series projects a little beyond the margin of the scale. The con- 

 spicuous terminal rostral tubercle, of semispherical form, is armed 

 with about eight radiating rows of strong spinules; the smaller 

 lateral tubercles are of oval outline, with a less definite arrangement 

 of the smaller spinules. 



Six pyloric caeca were counted in one paratype, and eight in the 

 other; they are shorter than the orbit in both cases. The anus is 

 placed immediately before the anal fin; its center is located behind 

 the base of the outer ventral ray a distance slightly less than the 

 postorbital length of the head, and equal to the distance between 

 the ventral base and the isthmus (somewhat longer in a paratype) .. 



