MACRURUS ANGULICEPS. 213 
Length of the body cavity one and four fifths times the length of the head. 
Head at the nape three fifths as wide as high, moderately convex on the 
sides, slightly concave or nearly flat on the crown. Snout wide, shovel-shaped 
and pointed and bearing three prominent angles at the end. Prominent 
suborbital, narial, and rostral keels, and a prominent orbital ridge on the 
upper and hinder half of each orbit. The snout is quite prominent and is 
wider than the interorbital space; the rostral ridge is high between the nos- 
trils; the narial ridges curve outward anteriorly and each ends in a blunt 
angle which like the median is crowned by a group of small teeth-like 
spines; its length is one and one fourth times that of the eye, one and one 
half times the width of the interorbital space, which latter equals the dis- 
tance from the intermaxillary to the end of the snout. Eye large, four fifths 
of the snout, two ninths of the head. Mouth small, anteriorly at a vertical 
from the middle of the snout, not reaching backward as far as the middle of 
the eye. Teeth small, in bands, outer series in the upper jaws larger. Bar- 
bel small, less than half as long as the eye. Suborbital ridge hardly reach- 
ing to midway from the eye to the preopercular ridge. Preopercular ridge 
much curved and bent backward in a rounded loop toward the lower end. 
Nape high. Second spine of the dorsal thickly set with prickles or spinules 
on the front edge, grooved on the back, compressed, equalling in total 
length three fifths of that of the head, ending in a flexible filament, inserted 
above the axil of the pectoral. Posterior rays of the first dorsal short ; 
commonly there are ten rays in this fin, rarely there are nine or eleven. 
Second dorsal low; anterior rays very small; base distant from that of the 
first less than the length of the latter. Ventrals small; origin below second 
dorsal ray; first ray with a filament, making its total length nearly one 
third of that of the head; number of rays usually eight, rarely seven. Anal 
much more developed than the second dorsal, longest rays equal the width 
of the eye. Vent close to the origin of the anal fin, below the origin of the 
second dorsal. Tail slender, thread-like. Pectorals small, half as long as 
the head, pointed. 
Seales harsh to the touch, with keel-like longitudinal series of low spines 
of which there are nine or more on the wider ones; about five scales be- 
tween the lateral line and the dorsal fin. The groups of spines on the ros- 
tral angles are rosettes in which the lines or series radiate from a common 
centre. 
Length of the specimen described thirteen and one half inches. 
