216 PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



PTEEOPHEYNE.* 



Antenuariines with skin naked and smooth; caudal peduncle free; 

 mouth oblique 5 dorsal spines completely exserted ; soft dorsal and anal 

 expanded vertically ; pectorals and wrists slender, and ventrals elon- 

 gated. 



Pterophryne histrio. 



Comvion Frog-fish. Mouse-fish. 



1758 — Lcpbius histrio, Linne, Systema Natura?, ID. ed., p. 237 ; 12. ed., 1. 1, p. 403; Gmel. 



ed., t. 1, p. 1481. 

 1815— Lophiusgibbus, MUchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y., v. 1, pi. 4, f. 9. 

 1837 — Chironectes pictus, Cuv. tj' Val., Hist. Nat. des Poissous, t. 12, p. 393, pi. 363. 

 1837 — Chironectes tumidus, Cuv. cf VaL, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, t. 12, p. 397. 

 1837— Chironectes loevigatus, Cuv. cj- Val., Hist. Nat. des Poissous, t. 12, p. 399. 

 1837 — Chironectes nesogallicus, Cuv. ^- Val., Hist. Nat. des Poissons, t. 12, p. 401. 

 1837 — Chironectes marmoratus, Cuv. 4~ VaL, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, t. 12, p. 402. 

 1839 — Chironectes lavigatus, Slorei-, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., v. 2, p. 383 ; Eep. Ich. 



and Herp. Mass., p. 73. 

 1842 — Chironectes loevigatus, DeKaij, Zoology of New York, Fishes, p. 165, pi. 27, f. 83. 

 1842 — Chironectes gibbus, DeKaij, Zoology of New York, Fishes, p. 164, pi. 24, f. 74. 

 1853 — Chironectes Isevigatus, Storer, Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and Sc, u. s., v. 5, p. 270 3 



Hist. Fishes Mass., p. 104, pl. 18, f. 3. 

 1861 — Antennarius marmoratus, Gilnlher, Cat. Fishes in Brit. Mus., v. 3, p. 185. 

 1863— Pterophryne lajvigatus, GiU,Tvoc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., [v. 15,] p. 90. 

 1878— Pterophryne histrio, GUI, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v. 1, p. 216. 



Pterophryne with the skin of head and body, as well as dorsal fins, 

 emitting cutaneous tentacles, which are generally most numerous on the 

 second and third dorsal spines and abdomen ; the first dorsal spine short 

 and filamentous with a smaller tip surmounted by a small tag ; the color 

 light for the ground, with spotted white dots and marked with blackish 

 brown around the ocular region, with several dark radii diverging from 

 the eyes, and on the fins more or less interrupted blackish bands, five 

 or six obliquely crossing the soft dorsal, three rectangularly crossing the 

 anal, and others on the pectotals, ventrals, and caudal. 



An inhabitant of the Sargassum Seas, but occasional straggler to the 

 North American coast. 



CERATIID^. 



Pediculates uou-pediculate and deprived of ventral fins, ?. e., 

 Pediculates diversiform in shape, with the mouth opening more or less 

 upwards; the branchial apertures in the lower axils of the pectorals ; 

 no pseudobranchioe ; the dorsals represented by at least a frontal or 

 superior rostral spine, the pectoral members not geniculated, with short 

 pseudobrachia and three actiuosts, and without ventrals. 



Apparently inhabitants of the depths of the ocean in their adult con- 

 dition, and, in some cases at least, near the surface in their juvenile 

 state. All the known species are unicolored and blackish. 



* Pterophryne, Tt-epov, wmg, quaul fin, and (ppwi], toad. If considered to be too near 

 Pterophryims, the genus may be called Plerophrynoidbs ((ppwoeidric, toad-like). 



