PLACOPHARYNX CARINATUS. 109 



the posterior extremity of this ridge appears in some Ptychostomi. Orbit 

 lougitudiiially oval, 4.5 times in length of head, twice in interorbital 

 width. Type, fonrteen inches in length. 



" Color in alcohol like that of other species, uniform straw or whitish 

 silvery. 



" The pharyngeal bones of this species are much stonter than those of 

 other species of its own and greater size, c. r/., PL aureolas of eighteen 

 inches, where they are comparatively slight. The exteroposterior ala is 

 twice as wide as the body inside the teeth is deep, and but for its short 

 base and narrowed tip would do lor that of a Semotilus. But while there 

 are seven broad teeth without heel or cusp on the basal half, there are 

 at least forty on the distal half, they becoming more compressed and 

 finally like those of other allied genera. There are fourteen with trun- 

 cate extremities. The pharyngeal plate has narrow horns directed up- 

 wards and forwards, and is thickened medially. It is placed ini medi- 

 ately in advance of the opening of the oesophagus. I have but one 

 specimen of this curious species, which I obtained at Lafayette, on the 

 Wabash River, in Indiana." 



The writer has in his collection two young specimens obtained in Illi- 

 nois Eiver by Piof. Brayton, a skeleton of a very large individual 

 found in Scioto River by Dr. J. W. Wheaton, and a pair of pharyngeal 

 bones taken by Dr. G. M. Levette from a fish taken in the Wabash at 

 Terre Haute. I have also seen a pair of pharyngeals and an air-bladder 

 of one taken in Detroit River by Professor Baird, and now in the United 

 States National ]\Iuseum, and a jaw from " Post-pliocene " deposits near 

 the Falls of the Ohio, found by Dr. John Sloan, The jaws and air- 

 bladder iibove noticed are the oidy specimens of this species preserved 

 in the National Museum. 



Since the foregoing was written, the writer has obtained numerous 

 living specimens of Plaeopharyiix carinatus from the French Broad at 

 Wolf Creek and other localities in North Carolina. From one of these, 

 the following description was taken : — 



Body oblotig, moderately compressed, heav^ at the shoulders : head 

 very large, 3^ in length of the body : eye small, behind the middle of the 

 head : mouth extremely large, the lower jaw oblique when the mouth is 

 closed, the month, therefore, protractile forwards as well as downwards : 

 lip'S very thi(;k, coarsely plicate, the lower lip full and heavy, truncate 

 behind : head above evenly rounded, in my specimens not showing the 

 carination described by Professor Cope : scales C-45-G : dorsal rays 13 ; 

 ventral 9: color I)rassy-green above; lower fins red. 



