496 GOBIESOCID.E. 



gonal plates ; there are no such plates between the roots of the 

 ventral fms. 



The intestines are not in a good state of preservation. The intes- 

 tinal tract appears to be nearly straight, wide, interiorly with a great 

 many transverse folds : I did not observe any different divisions or 

 pyloric appendages. The kidneys are small, elongate, situated in the 

 posterior part of the abdominal cavity ; urine-bladder rather small. 

 The ovaria are entirely separated. The vent and the porus urogeni- 

 talis are very close together, immediately behind the margin of the 

 adhesive disk. The specimen, being a female, has no anal papilla. 



Skeleton. — The skull agrees with that of Chorisochismvs in all the 

 essential points, but differs considerably in the form of the single 

 bones. Its upper surface from the occiput to the anterior angles of 

 the orbits is exceedingly broad and quite smooth. The principal 

 frontal bones are as broad as long,without concavity between the orbits ; 

 and the processes of the intermaxillaries, the posterior extremities 

 of which are also dilated and depressed, move over the smooth surface 

 of the frontals. The prsefrontal occupies its usual position. The 

 intennaxillary has its lateral branch quite rudimentary, whilst its 

 anterior, dentigerous portion is swollen, and provided exteriorly with 

 a groove above each incisor, in which the replacing teeth are deve- 

 loped ; its posterior processes are very long, flattened, moving below 

 the turbinal bones, which are very broad and meet anteriorly on 

 the middle. The maxiUary is stout, of irregular form, dilated at its 

 middle, so that its broad diameter is placed vertically to the longitu- 

 dinal axis of the skull. The mandibula is very short, broad and 

 depressed ; on the inferior side of the bone are grooves in which the 

 replacing teeth are developed : the articulary portion has a lunate 

 notch, in which the extremity of the maxillary is received. The 

 vomer is exceedingly broad and smooth, with the anterior margin 

 somewhat prominent, forming a very obtuse angle. Palatine bone 

 smaU, trihedral ; pterygoid rudimentary ; procorbital small. Tym- 

 panic large, with a very strong, sharp longitudinal ridge, which is 

 continued into that of the pra:!opcrculum ; meso- and pre-tympanic 

 small, the latter being received into a notch of the tympanic ; there 

 is a smaU ovate slit between mesotympanic and pra;operculum. Epi- 

 tympanic rather large. The prajoperculinn is long, but low, with a 

 strong ridge along its lower margin, the front part of which is covered 

 by the tympanic, whilst the posterior portion is much produced back- 

 wards ; interoperculum very feeble, situated at the inner .side of the 

 tympanic and anterior portion of the pra^operculum. The operculum 

 is as large as the praeoperculum and more than twice as long as 

 broad. The suboperculum is claw-shaped, and receives the lower 

 extremity of the operculum in a notch. Glossoliyal rudimentary ; 

 bones of the branchial arches thin and feeble ; basibranchials absent * ; 

 pharyngeals small, separate, and armed with small cardiform teeth. 



The structure of the humeral arch and of tlie pubic does not differ 

 from that of Chorisochismus. 



* Staniiius, Zool. Fisclie, p. 87. 



