820 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY — IV, 



very small, not ciliated. Head 4; deptli 3. T>. 100; A. 75. Green- 

 land to Cape Cod, common northward, reaching a very large size. 



(Pleuwnectes hippoglossoides Walbaum, Artedi, Pise. 1792, 115: HippogUssus grocn- 

 landicits Guuther, iv, 404. ) 



453.— ATHERESTHES Jordan & Gilbert. 



(Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 51: type Platysomatichthys stomias 

 J. &G.) 

 Eyes and color on the right side. Body very long and slender, 

 closely compressed, tapering into a long and slender caudal peduncle; 

 Lead elongate, narrow; mouth extremely large, oblique, the long and 

 narrow maxillary extending beyond the eye; both jaws with 2 irreg- 

 ular series of sharp, unequal, arrow-shaped teeth, some of them long 

 and wide-set, the others short and close-set, sharp; the long teeth 

 freely depressible. Gill-rakers numerous, long, slender and stiff, 

 strongly dentate within. Scales rather large, thin, and readily decid- 

 uous, slightly ciliated; those on the blind side similar, smooth; lateral 

 line without arch. Fins low and fragile. Dorsal commencing over the 

 eye, its anterior rays low, the posterior rays somewhat forked ; no anal 

 spine; pectorals and ventrals small, both of the latter lateral; caudal 

 Itinate. (a^r;/?, arrow; o^wv, tooth; from the arrow-shaped teeth.) 



1363. A. stomias Jordan <& Gilbert. 



Plain olive brown, the margins of the scales darker; blind side dusted 

 with black points. Head long, the snout protruding, somewhat truncate 

 at tip ; mouth excessively large ; the maxillary more than half the length 

 of the head, and reaching behind the eye; teeth in upper jaw anteriorly 

 in a single series, long, slender, and wide-set, much smaller and closer- 

 set behind; on sides of jaw the teeth are very small, and in 2 distinct 

 series, the inner of which corresponds to the single series in front, the 

 teeth thus gradually increasing in size forwards; teeth in inner series of 

 lower jaw very sharp and slender, longer than the upper teeth, wide- 

 set, alternating with shorter, depressed teeth; outside of these larger 

 teeth is a series of fixed small teeth; all of the long teeth in both jaws 

 depressible and conspicuously arrow-shaped towards their tips; inner 

 series of small teeth in upper jaw also arrow-shaped, depressible; eye 

 large, 4| in head ; interorbital space scaly, ridged, not a third the width 

 of the eye. Gill -rakers long and strong, about 17 in number (in total), 

 the longest more than half the diameter of the eye. Upper eye with 

 its range entirely vertical. Scales extremely thin, irregular in size, not 



