412 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
measured from tip of upper jaw; eye 714; sixth dorsal ray 3; 
sixth anal ray 5; least depth of caudal peduncle 4% ; caudal 2%; 
pectoral 134; ventral 2%. Body comparatively short, robust. 
Head large, depressed, broad. Eye a little elongate, superior. 
Mouth large, mandible protruding. Jaws, vomer and palatines 
with a single series of strong blunt teeth, and mandible with an 
additional series at synphysis. Teeth of upper jaw small, those of 
mandible small anteriorly and regularly increasing in size back- 
ward. Vomerine teeth prominent. Dentary bones forming an 
acute angle at symphysis. Lips fleshy. Tip of maxillary and 
lower side of mandible with conspicuous cirri. A series of smaller 
cirri along margin of preopercle. Subopercle ending in a long 
sharp spine. Upper angle of opercle with 2 diverging spines more 
or less concealed in skin. Interorbital space fleshy and depressed. 
Gill-rakers as 11 fleshy tubercles on first arch. Body naked. 
Lateral line obscure, pores inconspicuous. Pores on head and a 
large one in axil of pectoral. Dorsal spines short, covered with 
skin, and first inserted at end of head. Rayed dorsal covered with 
skin, tips of radii free, and inserted a little nearer tip of mandible 
than base of caudal. Anal similar, lower, and a little posterior in 
insertion. Caudal short, rounded. Pectoral broadly expanded, 
nearly to vent. Ventral thick and fleshy, space between but little 
less than length of fin. Dusky-olive variegated with darker or 
blackish. Length 10 inches. Beesley’s Point. 
Many examples from the above locality, some of which are 
newly-hatched young, Sea Isle City, Atlantic City and Cape May. 
In all these places it is abundant. Not valued as food. This 
voracious fish reaches a length of 15 inches, and with its powerful 
jaws crunches up crabs and oysters in its life along the bottom. 
Batrachns tau Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 817. 
Batrachus tau Verrill, Am. Nat., V, 1871, p. 398.—Bean, Bull. 
U. S. F. Com., VII, 1887, p. 135.—Moore, Bull. U. S. F. Com., 
XIT, 1892, p. 363. 
Batrachoides variegatus Le Sueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., 
Phila,, 111, 1822).pp..200; 4or. 
Batrachus variegatus Baird, 9th An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, 
P. 340. 
