346 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEmi. 



Macnirus carminatus, new species. 



A single specimen, 248 millimeters in length, was obtained, September 

 4, at station 871. It is most closely related to M. coelorliynchus (Risso) 

 Bonap. and to M. atlanticus Lowe, bnt differs in the number of iin-rays 

 and in other characters. 



The body is less elongate and stouter than in M. Bairdii, Goode & Bean, 

 though its greatest height (12.5) is, as in M. Bairdii, one-eighth of total 

 length. The difference in general appearance is due to the fact that in 

 31. carminatus the ventral contour retreats less rapidly. 



The scales are large, heavy, the free portions covered with long vitre- 

 ous spines arranged in nine or ten rows. These scales resemble the old- 

 fashioned wool cards. Hence the specific name, from carmen, a wool-card. 

 The spines are thicker and more closely set than in ill. Bairdii, and there 

 is no specialization of the central row. The number of scales in the 

 lateral line cannot be determined, thougii it probably does not exceed 

 100, but there are a,bout five transverse rows' above it and twelve below 

 it, counting from the vent obliquely backward. In ill. Bairdii there are 

 152 in the lateral line, six above and nineteen or twenty below. 



Length of head (21) contained a little less than five times in total 

 length. Width of interorbital area (4) about equal to vertical diameter 

 of orbit, and about one-fifth of the length of the head. Length of snout, 

 horizontal diameter of eye, length of postorbital portion of head about 

 equal (7). Length of operculum (35) half that of snout. 



Snout long, sharp, depressed, triangular, the lower surface more nearly 

 parallel with the axis of the body than in M. Bairdii. The lateral ridges 

 are pronounced and are contained in a straight line under the eyes and 

 upon the i>reopercula. Strong horizontal ri<lges continue from the supra- 

 orbital margins to the gill-openings, parallel with the subocular ridges. 

 Kostrils immediately in front of the orbit. Barbel very short. 



Teeth small, conical, somewhat recurved, arranged in villiform bands. 



Distance ot first dorsal from snout (23.5) about four and one-half times 

 the length of its base (5), its distance from anterior margin of orbit much 

 less than the length of the head. First spine very short, hardly per- 

 ceptible above the skin. Second spine about half as long (11) as the 

 head, slender, unarmed. When laid back, its tip reaches the origin of 

 the second dorsal (the filament is destroyed). The decrease in the 

 length of the spines is very gradual, the sixth being nearly as long as 

 the second, so that the fin is not so triangular in shape as in M. Bairdii. 



The second dorsal begins in the perpendicular from the seventh ray 

 of the anal. The anal is much higher than in M. Bairdii, tbe length of 

 the longest rays (2) nearly equal to half the width of the interorbital 

 area. 



Anal fin inserted under the eighteenth scale of the lateral line (as 

 nearly as can be judged from the distorted specimen). Its longest rays 

 are as long as the width of the interorbital area. 



Distance of pectoral from snout equal to twice its own length (11), 



