750 contributions to north american ichthyology iv. 



Family CXIL— BATRACHID^.* 



{The Toad-fishes.) 



Body generally robust, depressed anteriorly, compressed behind ; 

 head large, depressed, its niucit'erous channels well developed; month 

 very large, the teeth generally strong; premaxillaries protractile; gills 

 3, a slit behind the last; pseudobrauchiie none; gill-openings restricred 

 to the sides, tbe membranes broadly united to the isthmus; branchios- 

 tegals mostly <); gill-rakers present, moderate; suborbital without bony 

 stay; post-temporal bone simple, undivided; scales small, cycloid, or 

 wanting. Dorsal tins 2, the first of two or three low, stout spines; 

 soft dorsal very long; anal fin similar, but shorter; ventrals rather 

 large, jugular, I, 2 or I, 3; pectorals very broad, tbe rays branched; 

 pyloric cceca none; tail diphycercal, the caudal fin distinct, rounded. 

 Carnivorous coast fishes, mostly of the warm seas; the young of some 

 or all the species fasten themselves to rocks by means of an adhesive 

 ventral disk, which soon disappears. Genera 5; species about 12. 



(Batraehida; Giintlier, iii, 156-177.) 



a. Body naked. 



b. Lateral line obsolete; dorsal spines 3 Batrachus, 398. 



bb. Lateral lines several, each formed of shining bodies imbedded in the skin, 

 accompanied by pores and minnte cirri; no axillary foramen ; dorsal spines 2. 



PORICHTHYS, 399. 



398 BATRACHUS Bloch & Schneider. 



(Klein; Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth. 1801, 42: type Gadus tau L.) 



Body comparatively short and robust, scaleless; head large, de- 

 pressed; jaws, vomer, and palatines each with a single series of strong 

 blunt teeth; mandible with an additional external series at symphysis; 

 t^eth of upper jaw small; deutary bones forming an acute angle at 

 symphysis; lips fleshy; upper angle of opercle with 2 diverging spines, 

 more or less concealed in the skin; spinous dorsal of 3 stout short 

 spines, the second the longest; no lateral line nor conspicuous pores; 

 young with series of small tufted cirri on back and sides; branchioste- 

 gals 6; vertebrte 12 + 22. [^arpdyn^^ a frog.) 



«. Axil of pectoral with a large foramen. 



1149. B. taw (Linn.) Cuv. & YuA.—Toad-finh; Oi/ster-fish; Sarpo. 



Dusky olive, with black markings confluent on the sides and forming 

 irregular, indistinct bars; belly and under side of head lighter; fins 



* Family "114" of the key on page 80. 



