694 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



merous, and are very difficult to distinguish, all being very similar in 

 form and coloration. The relations of this genus to Coitus are very 

 close, {uupa'^e;^ the sky ; eidui^ to look.) 



a. Palatines with teeth; ventrals I, 4 (except in 1059). 



h. Preopercul.ar spine large, strongly hooked; skin ahove with coarse prickles. 

 {Tauridea* Jordan & Rice.) 



1054. IT. spilota Cope. 



Olivaceous, finely speckled and mottled with darker; belly white; 

 fins mottled. Body contracted at front of anal, subterete posteriorly. 

 Head very broad and flat; no occipital prominences; preopercular si)ine 

 extremely large, as long as eye, hooked upward; below it are three 

 small spines directed downwards; subopercular spine strong; space 

 above lateral line behind head, covered with small stiff prickles, coarser 

 than in IT. aspera and farther apart, slightly hooked backward; no spines 

 behind axil; isthmus broad, the gill-membranes fully joined to it, not 

 forming a fold. Head 3f ; depth 5^. D. VIII-17; A. 12. Great Lakes, 

 in deep water, and northward to Hudson's Bay. 



{Uranidea spilota Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1865, 82: Cotiopsis ricei Nelson, 

 Bull. Ills. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1876: Tauridea spilota Jordan, Man. Vert. E. U.S. 255: Col- 

 lopsis spilotm Jordan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1877, 81; Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. 1881, 127; specimens from near Hudson's Bay, said to have no palatine teeth.) 



I>h. Preopercular spine small, more or less perfectly concealed in the skin. 

 c. Skin almost everywhere villous. {Cottoptsisi Givsivd.) 



1055. U. aspera (Rich.) J. &. G. 



Grayish olive, much mottled and barred; fins finely variegated; 

 usually a large black blotch on posterior part of spinous dorsal. 

 Body rather stout, compressed behind. Head rather broad, trans- 

 versely convex ; opercle and preopercle with the usual spines, all small 

 and nearly concealed in the skin ; interorbital space broad and flattish, 

 broader than eye (in adults) ; skin covered with small close-set prickles, 

 forming a villous covering, the prickles smaller, stiffer, and more closely 

 set than in the next species ; head, belly, caudal peduncle, and space 

 along dorsal smooth, or nearly so; pectorals reaching anal; ventrals, 

 I, 4, nearly reaching vent; dorsal spine slender; lateral line complete, 

 angularly bent below last rays of second dorsal. Head 3; depth 4J. 

 D. X-21; A. 18. L. 10 inches. Streams west of the Sierra Nevada 



* Jordan & Rice, Man. Vert. E. U. S. ed. 2, 1878, 255: type Cottopsis ricei Nelson. 

 {rceupa, cow; ezdftr, appearance.) 



tGirard, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, iii, 303, 1850; type Cottus asper Rich. (KorroS, 

 Cottus; oipiS, apiiearance.) 



