164 OTSCOBOLI. 



Lips thick ; cleft of the mouth (lirccted ^p^vards, as in Urcmoseopna. 

 but with the lower jaw less prominent. The jaws, the palate, and 

 the pharj'nx arc rough with teeth. Four gills on each side ; seven 

 branchiostegals. The gill-opening is reduced to a slit above the 

 base of the pectorals. Pectorals large, very bi'oad, commencing at 

 the throat, the inferior part of their bases being parallel, ascending 

 to the gill-opening ; they are composed of about thirty rays, the in- 

 ferior of which are very short and not connected by a membrane. 

 "J'he dorsal and anal fins are contiguous with the caudal ; they com- 

 mence a little behind the middle of the body and are composed of 

 feeble rays. The jugular disk is situated between the pectorals, in 

 front of the vent ; it is very small, soft, supported by a bilamellated 

 cartilage which descends from the throat. The vent is between the 

 pectorals. Caudal small, six-rayed. Rose-coloured; the vertical 

 fins violet ; gill- cavity black. 



Steller adds the following anatomical details : — 



Ovarium orbicular, containing eggs of the size of a pea. Liver 

 Inrge, divided into four lobes, of a whitish colour ; gall-bladder ab- 

 sent. Spleen triangular, brown. The stomach is three times as 

 wide as the CESophagus ; forty-eight pyloric appendages, two inches 

 long, and as thick as the wing-feather of a pigeon, in a specimen 

 eighteen inches long. The remainder of the intestinal tract is about 

 as long as the fish. The urine-bladder is the size of a hazel-nut. 

 The kidneys are united into one cuneiform mass, commencing near the 

 gills and extending to the anterior portion of the ovarium ; the ureter 

 is single, very wide, flexuous, becoming narrower before its insertion 

 in the bladder. The nervi optici and olfactorii have one common 

 ganglion, from which, first, the former arise, emitting the latter from 

 the angle formed by the nerves and the ganglion (?). Skeleton very 

 slightly osseous. 



Specimens (one of 18 inches long) were found by Steller in 

 Peter and Paul's Harbour. 



7. Liparis pulchellus. 



Liparis pulchellus, Ayres in Proc. Calif. Acad. Nat. Sc. i. 1855, p. 23. 

 Cyclogaster pulchellus, Girarcl in U. S. Pacif. It. It. Expvd. Pishes, 

 p. 132. 



We are unable to give the specific differences of this fish, as it 

 is only known to us by. the description of Girard, who omits the 

 numbers of the fin-rays, stating, however, that the vertical fins are 

 imited. The following is an abstract of Girard's notes, taken from 

 a specimen four inches long : — 



The head is contained about five times in the total length ; the 

 snout protrudes sHghtly beyond the upper jaw. The longitudinal 

 diameter of the eye enters about five times in the length of the head. 

 The mouth is not deeply cleft, since the maxillary extends but to a 

 vertical line dra^oi in advance of the pupil. The li])s arc flabby. 

 Teeth very small, disposed in transversely oblique series in each jaw. 

 Girard has found only four branchiostegals. Dorsal and anal fins 



