460 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY — IV. 



Family LXXXIII (a).— APHREDODERID^. 



{The Pirate Perches.) 



Body oblong, elevated at the base of the dorsal, compressed behind, 

 the head thiclc and depressed, the profile concave. Caudal peduncle 

 thick. Mouth moderate, somewhat oblique, the lower jaw projecting; 

 maxillary reaching to anterior border of the eye. Teeth in villiform 

 bands on jaws, vomer, jjalatines, and pterygoids. Premaxillaries not 

 protractile; maxillaries small, without evident supplemental bone. 

 Preopercle and preorbital with their free edges sharply serrate; opercle 

 with a spine. Bones of skull somewhat cavernous. Sides of the head 

 scaly. Lower pharyngeals narrow, separate, with villiform teeth. 

 Gill-membranes slightly joined to the isthmus anteriorly. Gill-rakers 

 tubercle-like, dentate. Pseiidobranchiae obsolete. Gills 4, a small slit 

 behind the fourth. Branchiostegals 6. Scales moderate, strongly 

 ctenoid, adherent. Lateral line imperfect or wanting. Yent always an- 

 terior, its position varying with age,* from just behind the ventral fins 

 in the young, to below the preopercle in the adult. Dorsal fin single, 

 median, high, with but 3 or 4 spines, which are rapidly graduated, the 

 first being very short. Anal small, with 2 slender spines; ventral fins 

 thoracic, without distinct spine, the number of rays usually 7; caudal 

 fin rounded behiud. Air-bladder simple, large, adherent to the walls 

 of the abdomen. Vertebrae 14 + 15. Pyloric coeca about 12. A single 

 genus, with i)robably but one species. Confined to the United States. 



(Aphredoderidce Giiuther, i, 271.) 



240.— APiIRE»OS>E KITS Le Sueur. 

 Pirate Perches. 



(Le Sueur; Cuv. & Val. Hist. Nat. Poiss. ix, 443, 1833: type Aphredoderus gibbosus Le 

 8nenr ^^^ Scolojjsis sayanus Gillianis.) 



Characters of the genus included above, {d^odoc, excrement; 5ipr], 



the throat, from the position of the vent; hence more correctly Apho- 



doderus.) 



731. A. sayaams (Gilliams) DuKay. — Piralc Perch. 



Color dark olive, profusely speckled with dark points which often 

 make blackish streaks along rows of scales; two blackish bars at base 

 of caudal, between which is a light bar. Head 3; depth 3. D. Ill, 11 



*Thi8 Bingulaffact was first notiqed by Professor S. A. Forties. 



