118. OPHIDIID^E— OPHIDIUM. 793 



12*20. O. Josephi Grd. 



Pale olive, sprinkled all over with brownish specks; belly a.nd sides 

 of head plain ; vertical tins edj^ed with black. Eye moderate, 4 in head ; 

 maxillary extending to opposite its posterior margin; origin of dorsal 

 at some distance behind base of pectorals. Body shorter and pectorals 

 more elongate than in 0. taylorl. Head 0. Saint Joseph's Island, Texas. 

 {Girard.) 

 {OphkUonjom)]n Girard, U. S. Mex. Bound. Surv. Ichtli. 1859, 29.) 



1221. O. holbrooki Putnam. 



" Inner barbel nearly two-thirds length of the onter ; outer barbel equal 

 to the distance from the center of the eye to the i)oint of the operculum ; 

 maxillar3- reaching to the posterior border of the eye. Length of the 

 eye equal to the distance from its posterior margin to the ridge of the 

 preoperculum. Head one-sixth of the total length of the fish. Dorsal 

 and anal with a black margin. Grill -rakers 4. Air-bladder long, pointed, 

 without a foramen." L. G inches. Key West, Florida. (Putnam.) 



(Putnam, Proc. Bust. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1874, 342.) 



1222. O. taylori Girard. 



Light olive; head and upper parts covered with conspicuous round 

 dark, olive-brown spots; chin dusky; vertical fins edged with black. 

 Head large, little compressed, naked; top of head with conspicuous 

 mucous pores. Dorsal fin beginning over the pectorals; outer ray of 

 ventrals little more than half length of head; inner about one-third. 

 Air-bladder ovate, not contracted; seven gill-rakers below the angle of 

 the arch; pseudobranchiae developed. No spine on the end of the 

 snout. Outer teeth in both jaws considerably enlarged, the upper 

 largest. Head 0; depth 8. L. 12 inches. Coast of California; not 

 rare. 



(Girard, U. S. Pac. R. R. Surv. Fish. 1859, 138.) 

 (1(1. Outer teeth in. jaws movable; liead sealy above. (LejHophidium* Gill.) 



1223. O. i»rofuii(1oircaiii (Gill) J. &. G. 



Liglit rnfoiis; vertical fins margined with black. Body very slender; 



scales regularly arranged in quincunx order; scales on head extending 



to forehead, opercles, and cheeks; snout high, projecting, armed with a 



concealed spinous hook; teeth villiform, separated by an interval from 



an outer row of longer, slender, movable teeth; eye longer than snout, 



3J in head; lateral line obsolete behind ; vent toward end of first third 



*Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1833, 210: type Leptophidium profundorum Gill. 

 (A£;rr6?, slender; oqjidiov, Ophidium.) 



