326 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. v.m.xxvii. 



38. HEMITRIPTERUS "Cuvier. 

 Hemitripferns CvviER, Regne. Anini., 2d ed., II, 1829, p. I(i4 (nmericanus) . 



Body moderately elongate, soaleless, but the .skin covered with 

 prickles and ])ony protuberances of various sizes and forms. Head 

 large, with numerous bony humps and ridges and fleshy slips above; 

 orbital rim much elevated, the interorbital space deeply concave; a 

 depressed area at the occiput, behind which are 2 blunt spines on each 

 side. Mouth very wide; jaw\s, vomer, and palatines with broad bands 

 of teeth; no slit behind last gill; gill membranes broadly united, free 

 from isthmus; preopercle with stout, blunt spines; suborbital stay 

 very strong, forming a sharp ridge. vSpinous dorsal much longer than 

 the soft part, of 16 to IS spines, of which the first 2 are the highest, 

 and the fourth and fifth shorter than the succeeding ones, the fin thus 

 deeply emarginate; pectpral fins ver}^ broad, much procurrent; ven- 

 tials I, 3. Large fishes of singular appearance, inhabiting the North 

 Atlantic and Pacific. Dr. Gill makes of them a distinct family on 

 account of the great length of the spinous dorsal and the peculiar 

 development of the myodome. The genus is, however, related to 

 £lej).'^ias and jVautichthi/s, and the spinous dorsal is as long in Jordania 

 as in Ilemitrqjterus^ while the two genera stand as extremes in the 

 Cottoid group. 



[j'jl^i — , half; rpeig, three; Trrspoi^. fin.) 



55. HEMITRIPTERUS VILLOSUS (Pallas). 



Coitus vlllosus Pallas, Zoogr. Eoss. Asiat., Ill, 1811, p. 129; Cape Kronok, 

 Kamchatka; mouth of Itscha R. after MS. of Steller. — Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., IV, 1829, p. 196 (copied). — Jordan and Ever- 

 MANN, Fish. N. and M. Amer., II, 1898, p. 2022 (copied). 



HemUripfenift cavifrons Lockington, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1880, p. 233; 

 Kadiak Island. — Jordan and Evermann, Fish. N. and M. Amer., II, 1898, 

 p. 2023 (same specimen). 



Head 2f in length to base of caudal; depth 4^. Dorsal III, 11 or 

 15-13; anal 14; p. 20; scales 42. Eye (not orbital cavity) 6| in head; 

 snout 4J-; maxillary If; interorbital space 3. 



Upper profile of head much broken up into bony tubercles; the 

 orbital rim and premaxillary process strongly produced. Mouth large; 

 the maxillar}' reaching to behind posterior margin of eye a distance 

 equal to a diameter of pupil. Lower jaw ])lunt and projecting. Teeth 

 sharp, conical, rather long, and slightly hooked backward. Interor- 

 bital space wide and deeply concave; a large triangular pit at its middle, 

 the sides of which are a little convex. Two prominent ridges, and a 

 short one between them, diverge outward on superor])ital region from 

 a point at posterior angle of interorbital pit. A quadrate pit at vertex; 

 narrow behind; bounded on each side by a ridge which ])ears 3 ])lunt 

 tubercles. A pair of blunt tubercles a short distance behind superor- 



