250 DEEF-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



Outside of the Mediterranean it lias been identified by Gapello from Lisbon, where he 

 says it is very rare and found only in summer. 



Moreau says he has found it common at Marseilles, and identifies with the species in- 

 dividuals observed by him at St. Jean de Luz, where it is very common, and at IJiarritz, 

 where it is known by the Basque name Crahra; at Valence and at Arc-achon, where it is 

 exceedingly rare, M. Lafont having obtaihed a single specimen, trawled and brought to 

 market in February, 1871. 



The species also occurs in the Avestern Atlantic in numerous localities, having been 

 first discovered by the Flah Hawh, iu 18S0, off Narragansett Bay. The western form pre- 

 sents no characters by which it can be distinguished from that of the Mediterranean, except 

 that the lower rays of its pectoral fin are somewhat more prolonged in the example studied 

 by us. This also has a perfectly smooth suborbital keel, while most of the western speci- 

 mens have a small spine on the anterior jjortion of this keel. This character is of little mo- 

 ment. In some of our specimens the spine is present on one side and absent on the other. 



In comparing II. dacfi/IopterKs with II. maiJerenais, special attention should be paid to the 

 preopercular spines. The limb of the preoperculum is much more nearly vertical iu the 

 Madeiran type, and the spines are more prominent, and their axes (as shown in Lowe's figure) 

 are parallel with each other and with the central axis of the fish's body. This tendency to 

 parallelism is noticeable in some of our specimens of H. dactyloptcriis. The Madeiran fish 

 has a much more heavily armed head, and its coloration is different. The back part of the 

 mouth of //. (hicfyJopterus is plumbeous in both Mediterranean and American specimens, but 

 it seems hardly probable that it can have been as conspicuously black as in that of Madeira. 



In addition to the American specimens, we have had before us a specimen obtained by 

 President Jordan at G-enoa (U. S. iS"at. Mns. Cat. No. 29783). 



HELICOLENUS MADERENSIS, Goode & Bean, n. s. 



Sebactes imperialis, Lowe, Synopsis, Fishes of Madeira, 175; Fishes of Madeira, 171, pi. xxiv. 



A Ilelicoloms, with body moderately compressed, as high at the origin of the anal as at 

 that of the dorsal, with its i^rortle fiatly arched to a height equal to about one-third the 

 diameter of the orbit. Its greatest height, at the origin of the ventrals, is equal to the 

 length of the head (measured from the tip of the snout), and slightly exceeds one-third the 

 length of the body; the thickness, which is greatest behind the eyes, about one-half of its 

 height. 



Eye large, the upper limb of the orbit encroaching upon the upper profile of the head ; 

 its diameter equal to the length of the snout, but less than the postorbital portion of the 

 head, and consequently less than one-third the length of the head. The iiiterorbital space 

 deep and strongly ribbed, its width scarcely one half the diameter of the orbit; a promi- 

 nent depression iu the occipital region. Suborbital equally feeble, aculeate, with generally 

 only one slight spine. Preoperculum with five strong spines, equidistant and regularly 

 arranged, the uppermost, which is ojjposite the end of the suborbital keel, or sometimes one 

 below it, a little the most conspicuous, all having the same horizontal or parallel direction, 

 being nearly straight or but slightly hooking upwards. The scapulary and two suprascapu- 

 lary spines small and crowded, forming the usual triangle. Two conspicuous sjiines upon 

 the upper part of the opercular flap, below its angle; spines upon the anterior suborbital 

 incons|)icuous. 



Till" teeth are not described by Lowe. 



Tlic dorsal begins slightly behind the upper anterior angle of the preoperculum, and 

 (as shown in the figure) the roots of the first and second s])ines seem very close together. 

 The second and fourth spines are nearly equa', the third slightly exceeding them iu length; the 

 fifth, sixth, and seventh are nearly ecpial; the eighth, ninth, and tenth slightly decreasing 

 from one to the other, the ninth as long as the first, which exceeds the twelfth by as much 

 as this exceeds the tenth, and the tenth exceeds the eleventh. Tliis fin is less regular in 

 the diminution of the length of its spines than that in H. (hicti/loptcrvH. 



The aual begins farther forward than iu H. dactylopterm, apparently in the vertical from 



