1. BATKACHUS. 171 



Batrachus punctatua, ( Cuv.) Spijr, Pise. Bras. p. 133. pi. 74. 



conspicillum, Cuv. i^- Val. xii. p. 495. 



punctulatu3, Cuv. 8f Val. xii. p. 497. 



Darbatus, Cuv. <§• Val. xii. p. 498. 



planifrons, Guich. Explor. Sc. Alger. Poiss. p. 81. 



algeriensis, Guich. I. c. pi. 5. 



D. 3 1 20-21. A. 16-17. V. 1/2. Vert. 12/17. 



Scaly. The length of the head is two-sevenths of the total. Eye 

 very small. Gill- covers with three spines directed backwards, one 

 from the suboperculum, the two others from the operculum. No 

 fold of the skin below the eye. A series of pointed conical teeth 

 on the vomer, the palatine bones, and on the sides of the mandibula ; 

 the upper jaw and the front part of the lower with a band of cardi- 

 form teeth. Snout very broad, obtuse, flat and depressed, surrounded 

 by tentacles of variable length, those of the mandibula being much 

 larger than those of the maxiUary ; no tentacle above the eye. 

 Cleft of the mouth very wide. A foramen superiorly in the axil. 

 Brownish, lighter on the sides, dotted and spotted all over with 

 brown, the dots generally separated from one another by whitish 

 lines ; sometimes a greyish band between the eyes, and a pair of 

 more or less distinct round spots of the same colour on the nape. 

 Spots on the vertical fins larger. 



Atlantic, from the coast of Portugal to Guinea j (occasionally in 

 the German Ocean.) 



a. Very fine specimen : eighteen inches long. Lisbon. Presented 



by the Rev. R. T. Lowe. 

 b-c. Adult and half-grown. Lisbon. Presented by the Kev. R. 



T. Lowe. 

 d-e. Adult and half-grown. Cadiz. From the Haslar Collection. 

 /. Adult : stuffed. Mediterranean. 

 g. Adult male : skeleton. Lisbon. Presented by the Rev. R. T. 



Lowe. 

 h. Preparation of the internal parts of specimen g. 



This fine species, mentioned by Valenciennes under three different 

 denominations, and by another French naturalist under two others, 

 is readily distinguished by the number of the fin-rays and the 

 numerous spots, separated from one another by a fine net of whitish 

 lines. It is the only European representative of the genus at pre- 

 sent known. The statement of its occurrence on the coast of Guinea 

 is founded on the authorities of Barbot and Schneider, and is scarcely 

 to be doubted ; but we have not so good an indication of its pre- 

 sence in the American parts of the Atlantic. Bloch does not say 

 whence he procured the specimens of liis Gadus tau ; and when 

 Schneider afterwards adds " Habitat in America," it is to be sup- 

 posed that he borrowed this locality from the tnie Linnean Gadus 

 tau, which is an American species, but quite different from that of 

 Bloch. Agassiz says that his specimen was from the Atlantic. Both 

 Agassiz and Guichenot have apparently coloured their figures from 

 specimens preserved in spirits for some time. 



