NEW FISHES 225 



Diagnosis. — Head four times in length; depth slightly less; man- 

 dible with slightly enlarged teeth ; opercular bones without spines ; 

 lateral line double for a fourth of its length ; scales one hundred and 

 twenty -two ; dorsal fin long, beginning posterior to base of pectorals, 

 rays one hundred and six ; anal eighty-nine ; pectorals twenty -seven. 

 Color, uniform dark brown. 



Description of the T}'/*'.— Head four in length ; depth four and 

 one sixth ; eve five and one half in head ; snout three and five sevenths ; 

 interorbital four and one fourth; maxillary one and two thirds ; D. 

 106; A. 89 ; P. 27; C. 10; scales 14-122-35; pores |-^. 



Vertical profile of body elliptical, dorsal and ventral outlines sub- 

 equal ; body compressed and tapering to a point posteriorly. Head 

 large and rounded over vertex, dorsal profile converging sharply toward 

 the short, bluntly rounded snout ; interorbital region convex. Mouth 

 large, with a long maxillary, extending behind eye a distance equal to 

 length of snout ; cleft slightly oblique ; mandible included ; teeth 

 small, in villiform bands in both jaws ; the inner mandibular series en- 

 larged and consisting of about twenty large, spaced teeth, the posterior 

 largest ; vomer with a V-shaped patch of small teeth ; palatines tooth- 

 less ; opercular bones without prominent angles or spines, their posterior 

 edges covered with scales ; preopercle bordered below angle by a naked 

 groove containing three large mucous canal openings. Tip of the snout 

 and mandible with a pair of mucous canal openings ; upper part of 

 the opercular membrane with a similar opening. Gills four, a long 

 slit behind last, free from the isthmus ; pseudobranchiaj wanting. 

 Gill-rakers few, o-}-3, short, club-shaped, length of longest one third 

 diameter of eye, armed with minute teeth. Scales small, cycloid, em- 

 bedded, covering body and opercle above angle of preopercle ; head 

 above, snout, mandible and fin membranes naked ; scales on one side 

 of the head deeply embedded and hidden beneath the skin. Lateral 

 lines two, the upper beginning above opercle and extending to below- 

 middle of dorsal fin, following outline of back ; the lower line me- 

 dian, beginning slightly before anus and extending horizontally to last 

 vertebra ; the lines double for one fourth of their length ; pores thirtv 

 on upper line and forty on lower. A few pores below and running 

 parallel with lower line. Lateral line extending on head from angle of 

 opercle obliquely downward to tip of mandible. 



Dorsal fin long, extending from base of pectorals to the undifferen- 

 tiated caudal fin with which it is merged ; rays of about equal height 

 throughout, the anterior slightly shorter; height of median rays three 

 and one half in head ; all the rays free at the tip and somewhat fila- 



