660 Pareioplite, or Mailed-cheek Fishes 
tinct family. But the dorsal spines are equally numerous in 
Jordania, which stands at the opposite extreme of the cottoid 
seires. 
In Ascelichthys (rhodorus), a pretty sculpin of the rock-pools 
of the Oregon region, the ventral fins are wholly lost. Ereunias 
grallator, a deep-water sculpin from Japan, without ventrals and 
Fic. 566.—Oligocottus maculosus Girard. Sitka. 
with free rays below its pectorals, should perhaps represent a 
distinct family, Ereuniide. 
The degeneration of the spinous dorsal in Psychrolutes and Gil- 
bertidia of the North Pacific has been already noticed. These 
genera seem to lead directly from Cottunculus to Liparis. 
Fossil Cottide are few. Eocottus veronensis, from the Eocene 
of Monte Bolca, is completely scaled, with the ventral rays 1, 5. 
It is apparently related to Jordanza, but is still more primitive. 
Lepidocottus (aries and numerous other species, mostly from the 
Miocene) is covered with scales, but apparently has fewer than 
five soft rays in the ventrals. Remains of Oncocottus, Icelus, 
and Cottus are found in Arctic Pleistocene rocks. The family 
as a whole is evidently of recent date. 
The Rhamphocottide consist of a single little sculpin with a 
large bony and singularly formed head, found on the Pacific 
Coast from Sitka to Monterey. The species is called Rhampho- 
cottus richardsont. 
The Sea-poachers: Agonide.—The sea-poachers or alligator- 
fishes, Agonide, are sculpins inclosed in a coat of mail made by 
a series of overlying plates, much like those of the sea-horses or 
the catfishes of the family Loricariide. So far as structure 
goes, these singular fishes are essentially like the Cottide, but 
