PKOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 493 



6. Nanostoma elegans, Hay, sp. nov. (No. 27,445.) 



Body stout and somewhat compressed. Head short and deep, with 

 swollen cheeks. The snout is turned abruptly downward. The mouth 

 is subterniinal, horizontal, and small, the maxillary not reaching- back 

 to the vertical from the anterior of the orbit. U])per jaw not protractile. 

 Eye in the head 4 times. 



Head in the length to caudal (as in all measnreinents iji this i)ai)er) 4 

 times; dei)th in length 5. J^epth of caudal peduncle twice in its length; 

 this equal to three tenths of the length of the body. 



Eows of scales 5-42-0. Lateral line complete, nearly straight. 



The formula of the vertical fnis is D. X, 12 ; A. II, 8. The si)inous 

 dorsal slightly longer than the head, and half as high as long. Soft 

 dorsal live-sixths as long as the head, and two-thirds as high as long. 

 Anal three-fourths tlie length of the head, and as high as long, the i»os- 

 terior rays being the longest. 



The pectoral fins are very wide and long, reaching lieyond the tips of 

 the ventrals and to the vent. Caudal tin (Mnarginate. 



Cheeks, opercles, and back of the neck scaly ; the chest and the re- 

 gion just behind the ventrals naked. Gill-membrane broadly connected 

 across the breast. 



The general color of the body, after lying in spirits, is purple. Along 

 the back are six large square blotches of black, and along the sides 

 about eight broad transverse bars of the same color, but fainter; these 

 least distinct forward. Along the lateral line, alternating with the 

 transverse bars, are a luuiiber of spots, which, in the case of my largest 

 specimen, are of a more intense color than the bars. These spots con- 

 nect the bars, and v\'ith them form a dark lateral band. 



Besides these markings, many of the scnles, both within and outside 

 the dark bars, principally above the lateral line, l)ut also below, have 

 at their base a jet-black dot. These <lots are so arranged as to form 

 somewhat regular longitudinal lines. At the extremity of the caudal 

 peduncle there is a small black spot just above the last transverse bar, 

 and another below it. There are a few black s])ots behind the eye; a 

 dark bar running irom the eye downward, r.nd another from the eye 

 forwiird to the snout. 



Veutral and anal tins indigo-blue. Some of the same color on the 

 pectorals. In life there is a bar of deep orange or red running along 

 the base of both dorsals. The tips of the ventral rays in some speci- 

 mens, nmles perlmi)s, are swollen. 



Length of longest specimen 2} inches. 



Taken in a shallow, rocky, and saiuly branch of the CLickasawha 

 Iviver at Enterprise. 



The small, subinferior mouth, little compressed body, and widely con- 

 nected gill-membrane ally this species to Ka)iostoma. The dorsal fins 

 are separated as iu Notlionotus. 



