424 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [82] 
lated to each other. Two of them, however (littoralis, elongatus), while 
retaining the external form and appearance of the others, differ from 
them widely in the form of the lower pharyngeal teeth and in the pres. 
ence of gill-rakers. These we have placed in a distinct subgenus, which 
we have called Umbrula. Another species (ophicephalus) is also some- 
what aberrant and represents a third subgenus (Cirrimens). 
The species of Menticirrhus are all bottom fishes. The low, elongate 
body, the large pectorals, and the obsolete air-bladder are all characters 
related to this peculiarity of habit. 
‘ ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF MENTICIRRHUS. 
a. Dorsalspines about 13; head very low, thick, sub-terete, the snout blunt and very 
prominent; lower pharyngeals with acute teeth; gill-rakers 
obsolete. (Cirrimens Gill.) 
b. Body formed as usual in Menticirrhus; long and low, little compressed ; head 
with very convex cross-outlines, high in front, gibbous above 
the nostrils; profile depressed above eye; snout 3} in head } 
projecting for one-third its length ; eye small, 5 or 6; mouth 
very small, inferior, the outer teeth in the upper jaw mod- 
erately enlarged ; maxillary reaching to opposite middle of 
eye, 33 in head; gill-rakers minute, reduced to little fleshy 
projections; gill openings contracted, the membranes more | 
united below than in other species; preopercle with flexible 
cilia; lower pharyngeals small, the teeth mostly pointed ; 
spinous dorsal high, the longest spines 1} in head; pectorals 
short, 14 in head, not reaching tips of ventrals; caudal §- 
shaped, the lower lobe the longer. Color, dark gray; pec- 
torals dusky. Head 4; depth 4. D. XII-I, 23; A. I, 8; 
scales “4)(porep) =. 24.20 shee se aoes ee Be OPHICEPHALUS, 94, 
aa. Dorsal spines usually eleven; head not terete, more depressed, with lower snout. 
c. Gill-rakers obsolete, reduced to tubercular prominences, covered with teeth 
similar to those on the other gill arches; lower pharyngeals 
narrow, the teeth villiform or cardiform, all of them acute 
or conical, none with rounded heads (molar); teeth in the 
outer series of upper jaw more or less enlarged; scales on 
breast large. (Menticirrhas.) 
d. Soft dorsal rather short, its rays I, 18 to I, 22; snout prominent. 
. Snout very prominent, 34 in head, its tip slightly turned upward, project- 
ing beyond the premaxillaries for a distance about two-thirds 
diameter of the eye; spinous dorsal elevated, its longest 
spines 1} in head, reaching beyond front of so{t dorsal; eye 
large, but considerably smaller than in I, nasus, 54 in head; 
mouth comparatively small, inferior, the maxillary reaching 
middle of eye, 3} in head; posterior margin of spinous dor- 
sal deeply concave; rays of soft dorsal low, subequal; caudal 
deeply f-shaped, the upper lobe much the longer, 14 in head; 
ventrals short, 13 in pectorals; pectorals 1} in head; lateral 
line coneurrent with the back. Color, bluish above, silvery 
below; spinous dorsal dusky ; lining of gill cavity and 
inner side of pectorals dusky. Head 34in length; depth 4. 
D. X-I,,22; A. I, 83 scales 6-50-10. ..0y. 05.2205 5% Simus, 95. 
ee. Snout lesa promineyt, about r in head, its tip not recurved; dorsal spines 
not elevated, the Jongest barely reaching soft dorsal, 1} in 
head. 
