650 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



those iu the lower jaw iu a siugle series laterally, and iu a narrow band 

 in front; npper jaw, vomer, and palatines each with a band of similar 

 teeth. Head entirely scaly. No supraorbital flap. Preopercle un- 

 armed, its membranaceous edge crenulate. Gill-membranes joined 

 to the isthmus. Body entirely covered with minute ctenoid scales. 

 Lateral line single. Dorsals short, well separated, the first of slender, 

 flexible spines; second dorsal shorter, similar 16 the anal, which is pre- 

 ceded by three weak spines ; ventrals but little behind pectorals ; caudal 

 fin forked. Peritoneum black. Pyloric coeca about two, long and slen- 

 der. Gill-rakers slender, few, not very short. Korth Pacific. (avorrAo?, 

 unarmed ; Trw/ia, operculum.) 



10^6. A. fisnbria (Pallas) GiU.—Beshotv ; Coal-fish. 



Color slaty-black or grayish, somewhat reticulated; white below, the 

 young rather pale ; adult nearly black ; fins dusky; caudal edged with 

 pale; lining of the opercle black. Premaxillaries on the level of the 

 lower part of the orbit; maxillary reaching to opposite front of pupil. 

 Dorsal fins separated by a distance nearly equal to two-thirds length of 

 the base of soft dorsal, the spines very weak ; the fourth longest; pec- 

 torals reaching beyond tips of ventrals, not half way to vent. Head 4 ; 

 depth 61 D. XX-1, 17 ; A. Ill, 15; Lat. 1. 190. Usual length 18 inches, 

 but sometimes much larger. Monterey to Alaska; rather common, es- 

 pecially northward. A very singular and interesting fish. 



(Gad us fimbria Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. iii, 200, 1811: Anoplopoma merlangus 

 Ayres, Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1859, 27 : Scomhrocoitus salmaneus Peters, Berlin. 

 Monatsber. ) 



Family CVI — SCORP^NIDiE. 



[The Rock-fishes.) 



Cottoid fishes, with the body oblong, more or less compressed, the head 

 generally large, and usually with one or more pairs of ridges above, 

 which terminate in spines. Opercle usually with two spinous pro- 

 cesses; preopercle with five. Mouth t<^ninal, usually large, with 

 villiform teeth on jaws and vomer, and usually on the palatines. Pre- 

 maxillaries protractile; maxillary broad, without supplemental bone, 

 not slipping under preorbital. Gill-openings wide ; the gill-membranes 

 separate and free from the isthmus ; usually no slit behind the fourth 

 gill. Scales ctenoid, or sometimes cycloid, usually well developed, 

 sometimes nearly obsolete. Lateral line single. A bony stay extend- 

 ing backward from the suborbital toward the preojiercle. Ventral 

 fins thoracic, of the normal percoid form, I, 5, the rays branched; dor- 



