ERETMICHTHYS PINNATUS. 165 
than wide, thick, convex on the crown, broad at the snout. Snout broad, 
blunt, not projecting beyond the mouth. Bones of skull thin, with large 
mucous cavities, prominent in the internarial region. Mouth large, upper 
border formed by the intermaxillaries. Teeth small, in villiform bands on 
intermaxillaries, lower jaws, vomer, and palatines. Branchiostegal rays 
eight. Nostrils rather close together, prominent ; a groove from the anterior 
nostril down and forward to the lip. Eye small, lateral. -Gill openings 
wide; membranes not united, free from the isthmus. Four gills, a slit be- 
hind the fourth; rakers numerous, elongate, slender. Pseudobranchize 
small. No barbels. Opercles thin, margins flexible, spine weak. Preopercle 
not armed. Vertical fins united; dorsal origin close to the head; caudal 
narrow, elongate, pointed. Ventrals of a single filamentary ray, close to- 
gether, at the humeral symphysis. Pectoral bases broad ; lower half of the 
fin longer, in the type species very long and rigid, forming a long oarlike 
sweep, the function of which may be of sexual rather than of motor import- 
ance. Scales thin, deciduous, covering body and head. 
Eretmichthys pinnatus sp. n. 
Plate XX XV. figs. 1-4; Plate LXXTIX. fig. 2, Lat. Syst. 
Br. r. 8; D. 125-128; A. 104-105; V.1; P. 29 (14 4 15); C. 8. 
Elongate, slender, compressed, tapering; depth two thirds of the head 
length. Head two elevenths of the total length, high at the nape, very 
convex across the forehead, prominent between the nostrils on the top of 
the snout. Snout broad, blunt, deep, more than twice as long as the eye. 
Mouth wide, little higher forward; cleft subtending the entire eye ; maxil- 
lary reaching a vertical one diameter of the orbit farther back, broadened 
and indented at the end, lower angle longer, acute. Teeth small, equal, in 
villiform bands on jaws, vomer, and palatines. Vomerine band V-shaped, 
with apex forward and descending and with arms curving out toward the 
palatines. A groove from the anterior nostril to the lip. Eye small, nearly 
half as long as the snout, one third of the interorbital space, one tenth of 
the head. Gill openings wide ; membranes not united, free from the isthmus. 
Branchiostegal rays eight. Gills four, a short opening behind the fourth; 
lamin short; rakers slender, as long as the orbit, fifteen to seventeen in 
number, only one or two of which are on the upper section of the arch, 
Pseudobranchix small. Tongue acute, free at the end. Opercular margins 
