CONGERMURZENA PRORIGERA. 307 
Congermurena prorigera. 
Ophisoma prorigerum Gilb., 1891, P. U. S. Mus., XIV., 350. 
Brom Lp Ds 2277-ck iG, Pride Cy 10: Roressl36. 
Body moderately long, compressed, depth twelve times and length of 
body cavity two and three fifths times in the total length. Head elongate, 
four fifteenths of the entire length, five ninths of the distance from the 
snout to the anal origin, somewhat compressed, narrowed and sharpened 
in front, longitudinally wrinkled on the thorax. Skull with a low median 
keel. Snout prominent beyond the lower jaw, one fourth as long as the 
head. one and two thirds times the length of the eye, angled across the end 
as if for rooting. Anterior nostril below the angle of the snout near the tip, 
with a short tube; posterior immediately in front of the eye, with promi- 
nent margins. Mouth medium, longer than the snout, cleft almost to a 
vertical from the hind border of the eye. Teeth small, subconical, in bands 
on jaws and vomer. The transverse group on the head of the vomer is 
externally exposed and is separated from the band on the shaft by a narrow 
space. The band on the shaft of the vomer narrows backward and ends 
below the space between the eye and the posterior nostril; in front it is 
hardly separated from the bands on the jaws. Eye large, half as long as 
the snout, one ninth as long as the head, not as wide as the interorbital 
space. Gill apertures one and one half times the width of the eye, sepa- 
rated by a space of the same width, extending little upward in front of the 
pectorals. Lateral line distinct, with larger pores along the lower edge and 
minute ones along the middle, in a low arch above the gill chamber, wider 
forward, with one hundred and thirty-six pores. 
Dorsal and anal continuous with the caudal, moderately deep. Dorsal 
origin one diaméter of the eye farther forward than the gill opening. Anal 
origin below the fifty-sixth ray of the dorsal. Caudal short ; while the fins 
are really quite continuous about ten of the rays appear to spring from the 
end of the column to form the narrow fin. Pectorals well developed, of 
medium depth, equal in length to the distance from the snout to the poste- 
rior border of the orbit, broadly rounded on the distal end, reaching when 
applied to the side of the head less than one third of the distance to the 
end of the snout or less than half of that to the orbit. A thirteen inch 
female contains eggs that are about mature. 
