REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [136] 
longer, acute central denticle and a smaller outer one, and with the inner 
angle of the base slightly prominent,; the next to the outer lateral teeth 
(fig. G, c) are much longer, broad, tapered, curved, acute; the outer 
teeth (fig. G, d) are longer, more slender, more curved, triquetral, and 
very acute, with a large basal lobe. A row of thin, distinct, roundish 
scales (fig. 6, e) forms a border outside the teeth. 
The pen (Plate XXVII, figs. 1-4) is thin, translucent, pale yellowish 
in fresh specimens, but brownish or amber-color in alcoholic specimens. 
It has a short, narrow, anterior shaft and a long, very thin, lanceolate 
blade, which is concave beneath, especially posteriorly, for the edges 
curve downward, but are not involute; the posterior tip is acute, a little 
thickened, and slightly curved downward, so that the posterior end is 
shaped something like the forward part of an inverted shallow canoe; 
the cavity at the extreme tip is slightly decked over in large specimens. 
In the male (fig. 4) the pen is relatively longer and the blade narrower 
than in the female. The extreme anterior end is thin and flexible, and 
rather sharply and abruptly pointed, being shaped like a pen; the shaft 
is rather stiff, with a strong, regularly rounded keel, convex above and 
concave beneath; outside of the keel the marginal portion curves out¬ 
ward and then upward, so that its convex surface is below, and the 
edge slightly turns up. The shaft, with its central keel and marginal 
ridges, extends to the posterior tip of the pen, decreasing regularly in 
width beyond the commencement of the blade. The blade is at first 
very narrow, and gradually increases in width; it is marked by numer¬ 
ous slightly thickened ridges, which diverge from the central line as 
they extend backward ; the edges arc very thin. 
In the larger males the proportion of the greatest breadth of the 
blade to the total length of the^pen varies from 1:7.50 to 1:9.3G. In the 
females it varies from 1:5.G0 to 1: G.10. 
The foilowiDg.description of the colors was made from a freshly caught 
adult male specimen (1 G), taken in Xew Haven Harbor, May 18, 1880. 
Upper surfaces of the body, head, and caudal fin thickly covered with 
rather large chromatophores, which are mostly rounded or nearly cir¬ 
cular, except along the middle of the back, where they are more crowded 
and darker, and mostly have a long-elliptical form (perhaps accidental). 
The chromatophores, when expanded, are light red to dark lake-red, 
varying to purplish red and pink; when contracted to small points, 
they become brownish purple. 
On the head, behind the middle of the eyes, and toward the margin 
of the caudal fin, the spots are smaller and less numerous, the interven¬ 
ing bluish white ground-color showing more largely. Over most of the 
dorsal surface the chromatophores are arranged more or less evidently 
in circular groups; usually the central chromatophore is a large, round, 
dark-purplish spot; this is surrounded by a circular space of whitish 
ground-color, and by a circle of roundish chromatophores, mostly of 
different shades of lake-red and pink, and a deeper lying circle of pale 
