734 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



membranes nearly separate, free from isthmus; gill-rakers rather long. 

 Body covered with small, rough scales, which are not keeled; lateral 

 line continuous; scales of breast very small. Dorsal fins dislinct, the 

 first of 8 to 10 rather stout spines; anal fin similar to soft dorsal; 

 pectoral fin with the three k>wer anterior raj's thickened, entirely free 

 from each other and from the fin; ventrals I, 5, wide apart, with a fiat 

 space between them, the inner rays longest. Pyloric coeca in moderate 

 number^ air-bladder generally with lateral muscles, and divided into 

 two lateral parts; vertebrae 10 or 11 -f- 15. Spe(iies about 10, repre- 

 senting in America the old world genus TrigJa. (-/>.'wv^ saw; vwto?, 

 back; three free, saw-like spines beiug said to intervene between the 

 two dorsals.) 



a. Mouth smiill, mandible not reaching vertical from front of orbit; preopercnlar 

 spine without conspicuous basal cusp; blotches on spinous dorsal well de- 

 fined, ocellated; a transverse groove connecting the upper i)osterior angles of 

 orbit. {Ornichthiis* Sw.) 

 h. Body A'ery slender; sides with numerous round brownish spots. 



11 'i3. P. pianctatus (Bloch) Cuv. & Val. 



Dark olive brown, back and sides covered with numerous round 

 bronze spots, larger than the pupil; spinous dorsal dusky, with lighter 

 streaks and two black ocellated spots; second dorsal and upper half of 

 caudal spotted; anal blackish, with a pinkish border; i)ectorals black- 

 ish, the free rays barred with light and dark; ventrals pale; branchi- 

 ostegal membrane pinkish. Pectorals short, reaching oidy to middle of 

 soft dorsal, 2^ in length to base of caudal; first dorsal high. Body 

 ranch slenderer than in any of the other si)ecies. Band of palatine 

 teeth very slender, shorter than eye; maxillary one-third length of 

 head; preorbital without spines; opercle scaleless ; gill rakers shortish; 

 about 10 below angle. Head 3^; depth G. D. X-13; A. 12; Lat. 1. 

 about 7.5. West Indies, north to North Carolina; uot rare southward. 

 Here described from specimens from North Carolina, perhaps belonging 

 to a species distinct from the true punctatus, which is described as less 

 slender. 



(ITrigla pu.nclata Bloch, Ausl. Fisch. taf. 353; ?Cuv. & Val. iv, 93; ?Gunther, ii, 

 193-; Jordan & Gilberf, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1878, 373.) 



hh. Body rather robust ; sides of body without conspicuous spots. 



1324. P. palmipes (Mitch.) Storer. 



Brownish above, clouded with darker; throat and branch iostegals 



dark; a distinct black blotch above on membrane between fourth and 



. "Swainson, Class. Fish, etc., 1839, 2G2: type Trigla punctata Bloch. (opvi?, bird; 

 ^^Ot3s, fish.) 



