728 CONTEIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



3§4.— AGONIJS Bloch & Schneider. 

 (AspidopJiorus Lac^p^de: Phalangisles Pallas.) 

 (Blocli & Schneider, Syst. Ichth. 104, 1801: type Coitus eataphractus L.) 

 Body low; head broad, depressed, about as broad as long; mouth 

 small, subinferior, the lower jaw included; no vomerine teeth; gill- 

 membranes joined to the isthmus, forming a narrow fold across it; 

 plates on body without spines; fins short. One species known, (a, 

 without; ^wvos, joint: *'. e., rigid.) 



1110. A. catapSiractllS (L.) Bloch & Schneider. — Sea Poacher. 



Brownish, sides with some dark bands; pectorals and uj>per fins 

 barred. Body anteriorly very broad, flattened below, taj)ering ab- 

 ruptly forward to the triangular snout, and slowly backward to the 

 long and slender tail; the greatest width is half more than the greatest 

 height and 5 times the least height; snont with four sharj), hooked 

 spines i)rojecting much beyond the horizontal fl-shaped moutli; lower 

 jaw profusely covered with thickish barbels, the largest longer than 

 eye; suborbital narrow, with three blunt bony projections; preopercle 

 and subopercle each with a stout sjjine, that on suboi)ercle the larger 

 and hooked backward; bones of head striate; orbital crests elevated, 

 roughish; interorbital space broader than eye; top of head little un- 

 even, without spines; two blunt occipital processes; no nuchal depres- 

 sion; the space between dorsal ridges concaA'e; plates on body rugose; 

 lateral plates much smaller than others, the upper lateral series obsolete 

 from middle of spinous dorsal forward, in which region the lower lateral 

 series is much enlarged; breast with four quadrate plates forming a 

 square. Dorsal small; pectoral about as long as head, reaching to 

 within four plates of anal; ventrals short, reaching little beyond vent, 

 C| in length. Head about as broad as long, 4J; depth 6. D. V-7; A. 

 5 ; Lat. 1. 35 ; coeca 5 ; vertebrae 11 -f 25. Korthern Europe ; recorded, 

 perhaps erroneously, from Greenland. 



(Coif Its eataphractus L. Syst. Nat. i, 451: Aspidophorus arm a fws Lac€p. iii, 222; Giin- 

 ther, ii, 211; Day, Fishes Great Britain, 1881, 67.) 



3§5.— BOTHRAGONUS Gill. 



(Gill, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. xi, ined. : type Hypsagonus swani Steindachner.) 



Body rather short and deep, broad and depressed anteriorly, com- 

 pressed behind; a deep nuchal pit; moutli subinferior, the lower jaw 

 included ; head and neck to the dorsal fin rhombic in outline, as seen 

 from above; jaws and vomer with teeth; dorsals small, well sei^aratedj 



