52 Storefs Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. 



GENUS III. DACTYLOPTERUS, Lacep. 



The rays under the pectorals are numerous and large ; and instead of being 

 free, as in the preceding genera, they are united by a membrane into a super- 

 numerary fin, larger than the fish itself, and which supports them in the air for 

 some length of time. Their muzzle, which is very short, appears to be cleft 

 like the lips of a hare ; their mouth is situated underneath ; there are, in the jaws 

 only, certain rounded teeth, arranged like pavement ; their head is flat, rectan- 

 gular, and granulated ; their preoperculum is terminated by a long and strong 

 spine. All their scales are carinated. 



1. Dactylopterus volitans, L. 



Light brown above, with irregular dark spots; beneath, of a flesh -color. The larger pec- 

 torals blackish, with bluish spots. Two flexible filaments at the side of each other, in 

 front of the first dorsal. A short, stout triangular spine between the dorsal fins. 



D.2,4,1-8. P. 6-30. V.l-4. A. 6. C. 10|. Length, 6 inches. 



Newfoundland, Cuv. Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Linsley. New York, 



Mitchili., Dekay. Gulf of Mexico, Parra. Caribbean Sea, Cuv. 



Trigla volilans, Flying Gurnard, L., Shaw's Gen. Zool., iv. p. 622, pi. 01. 



Morcielago, Parra, p. 25, pi. 14. 



Folynemus sexradialus, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., i. pi. 4, fig. 10. 



" " " Suppl. Amer. Month. Mag., II. p. 323. 



Le Dactyloptere coramun, Dactylopterus volilans, Cuv. et Val., iv. p. 117. 



" Griffith's Cuv., x. p. 133. 



" Rich, Fauna Boreal. Americ, in. p. 40. 



" Wilson, Encyclop. Brit., Art. Ichthyology, p. 173 



" Sea-Swallow, Dekav's Report, p. 49, pi. 17, fig 48 



GENUS IV. COTTUS, Lin. 



Head large, depressed ; teeth in both jaws and in front of the vomer, small, 

 sharp, none on the palatine bones ; preoperculum or operculum armed with 

 spines, sometimes both ; branchiostegous rays, six ; gill-openings large ; body 

 attenuated, naked, without scales ; two dorsal fins, distinct, or very slightly 

 connected ; ventral fins small. , , / 



1. Cottus -gJofefoyrL. 



Body very slimy ; yellowish, clouded with black ; the first dorsal fin edged with a very 

 narrow line of orange. Snout to first dorsal ray 0.84, and from here to the last dorsal ray 

 1.5. The anus is midway between the snout and the base of the caudal rays. The lateral 

 line is straight from the middle of the first dorsal fin backwards. 



