EEVISION OF THE FISH FAMILY LIPARIDAE 47 



water species Liparis owstoni and tessellatus have the dorsal connected 

 to fully three-fourths of the caudal. In some of the species the last 

 dorsal ray is shortened, this forming a notch between dorsal and 

 caudal. This notch appears to be of little taxonomic value because 

 of great variabiUty. It may be constant for some species but the 

 writer never found it so. When the notch is present or when the 

 dorsal connection to the caudal is short the outline of the posterior 

 part of the fin descends abruptly to the caudal. In Liparis pul- 

 chellus and tessellatus, in which the dorsal is broadly connected to 

 the caudal, the outline of the dorsal slopes gradually and indistinctly 

 merges into the caudal outline. 



Anal Jin. — The important characteristics of the anal fin are the 

 number of rays and the extent of the connection with the caudal fin. 

 The number of rays varies from about 24 to 40. The specific varia- 

 tion is seldom more than four — that is, two on each side of the 

 average number. The connection with the caudal is, in practically 

 all of the species, shghtly greater than the dorsal connection with the 

 caudal. The anterior anal rays, in some species if not in all, resemble 

 the anterior dorsal rays in being unsegmented but differ in being 

 split to the tips. 



Caudal Jin. — The caudal fin is alwaj^s strong and broad. It varies 

 little among the various species, either in shape or number of rays, 

 and does not present characters which can be frequently utilized in 

 distinguishing species. The average number of rays forming the 

 main body of the fin is 10 or 12. There appears to be little variation 

 within a species. There are in many species short rays on each side 

 of the base which appear only when the fin is dissected. These 

 short rays appear to be more numerous in such species as Liparis 

 callyodon, in which the caudal is practically free from the dorsal and 

 anal. There may be as many as 8 or 10 rudimentary rays, which 

 bring the total number of caudal rays up to 18 or 20. The discrep- 

 ancies between the descriptions of the caudal of a species are probably 

 due to the short rays which may or may not have escaped observation. 

 In the specific descriptions in this work the number of caudal rays 

 given refer to the full-length rays. 



Pectoral Jin. — The pectoral fin presents important characters. 

 The number of rays is of the most importance. The absence of the 

 pectoral notch separates a few of the species from all the rest. The 

 length of the lower pectoral lobe varies and can be utilized to a 

 slight extent in separating species. 



The number of pectoral rays ranges from about 28 to 41. The 

 specific variation is about four. In nearly all of the species the 

 number of pectoral rays is less than the number of dorsal rays and 

 greater than the number of anal rays. In one species, Liparis 

 Jucensis, the pectoral has more rays than the dorsal. The pectoral of 



