766 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NOETH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY — IV. 



411.— MUR.E1VOBDES* Lac(?,pMe. 



Butter -fishes. 



{Centronotus Bloch: GunneUus Cuvier.) 



(Lac^pfede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. ii, 324, 1800: type Murcvnoldcs sujV/ Lac^p. = B?ewmM8 

 gunnellus L.) 



Body long and low, considerably compressed, somewhat baud-shaped, 

 the tail slowly tapering; head small, compressed, naked or scaly; 

 mouth rather small, oblique; jaws with rather small teeth in narrow 

 bands or single series; vomer and palatines usually toothless; gill- 

 membranes broadly united, free from the isthmus; scales very small, 



* Little known species related to Murcenoides, recorded from Kamtschatka, and 

 doubtless occurring also in Alaska, are the following: 



M. tcenia (Pallas). 



Body banded; teeth obtuse, subdistinct ; head subtriangular, compressed; body 

 ensiform, covered with minute imbedded scales; vent median. Dorsal fin extending 

 from near the head to the tail, the spines subequal; caudal subdistinct; pectorals 

 small; ventrals represented by 2 recurved si)ines. D. LXXXVII ; A. 47. Kurilo 

 Islands. (Pallas.) 



(Blentiius taviia Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat. iii, 178.) 



M. riiberrimus (Cuv. & Val.) 



Bright red. Form of preceding ; scales inconspicuous ; ventrals each a single 

 scarcely projecting spine; caudal broad, rounded, distinct. D. CXV. Kurile 

 Islands. (Pallas.) 



(Gunnellus ruberrimus Cuv. & Val. xiv, 440, after Pallas, 1. c. 178.) 



M.l ocellatus (Tilesius.) 



Browuish, marked with yellow and purple; six black ocellated spots along the 

 dorsal fin. Caudal distinct; ventrals none. D. LXXX; A. 50. Otherwise essentially 

 as in M. (junnclUis. Kamtschatka. (Cuv. <f Val.) 



(OplMUun occUatum Tiles. M6m. Acad. St. Pctersb. ii, 237, 1811: Gunndhis apos Cuv. 

 & Val. xiv, 426: Centronotus «j»(s Gthr. iii, 288.) 



GUNNELLOPS Bleeker. 



(Bleeker: type Blenn'ms roseus Pallas.) 



Apparently distinguished from Murcenoides by the tapering tail, around which the 

 vertical fins are confluent; palatine teeth present. \ 



(Gunnellus, Gunnel, an old name of Murcenoides gunnellus; uf, eye.) 



G. roseus (Pallas) Bleeker. 



Intensely red. Head obtuse, the lower jaw projecting; eyes large; body very 

 long, compressed, tapering into a slender tail; pectorals small, ovate, hyaline; 2 

 spines in place of ventrals; dorsal extending from the nape to the end of the tail; 

 anal joined to caudal. D. ca. 100; A. ca. 90; P. 9; V. I. Kurile Islands. 



(Blennius roseus Pallas, 1. c. 177: Centronotus roseus Gunther, iii, 290.) 



