FAMILY TRIGLIDA — CRYPTACANTHODES. 63 
‘ 
I have never had an opportunity of seeing this rare species, and have copied from Storer 
his figure of one found on the coast of Massachusetts. It occurs in the Arctic seas, is unim- 
portant as an article of food, and is very rare. 
GENUS CRYPTACANTHODES. Storer. 
Body anguilliform, compressed, gradually tapering to the tail, without scales. Head broad, 
with no projecting spines but the angles of the gill-covers. The scapular and humeral 
spines, and the lower edge of the preopercle, prominent to the touch. Branchial rays 
seven. A single dorsal, with strong spinous rays, and united with the caudal and anal. 
No ventral fins. Teeth in the jaws, vomer and palatines. 
Oss. This genus was established by Dr. Storer, for the reception of a remarkable fish 
which appears occasionally on the seacoast of Massachusetts. 
THE SPOTTED WRY-MOUTH. 
CrYPTACANTHODES MACULATUS, 
PLATE XVII. FIG. 50. AND WITH THE HEAD ENLARGED.—(CAB. BOST. NAT. HIST. SOCIETY.) 
Cryptacanthodes maculatus, Spotted Wry-mouth. STORER, Mass. Rep. p. 28. 
Characteristics. Reddish brown, with darker reddish blotches, forming two longitudinal series, 
on the sides. Length twelve to twenty inches. 
Description. Body elongated, compressed, scaleless. Lateral line straight, with the ap- 
pearance of interrupted dots. Head large, flattened above, with several bony processes and 
ridges ; two prominent ones running from the orbits backwards to the occiput. ‘The posterior 
angles of the opercle and preopercle, the whole lower edge of the latter, and the scapular 
bones, all seem like sharp points and edges concealed under the skin. Opercle small, 1-°0 
long, rounded on its lower margin, acute behind; its upper margin forming a bony ridge, and 
united to the preopercle by a membrane at its upper angle. Preopercle large ; its upper and 
posterior angles obvious to the touch ; its lower edge sharp, and feeling as if divided into two 
ridges. Branchial membrane capacious, dilatable, and forming a large fold above the base 
of the pectorals, where it unites with the common skin. Eyes moderate, nearly vertical, 0°3 
in diameter, and 0°63 apart; the intervening space between the orbits depressed, with nume- 
rous pits or cavities. Nostrils tubular, and placed on a line with the upper margin of the 
orbits, at the edge of the intermaxillaries. Mouth wide, terminal, opening obliquely upwards. 
Lips large and fleshy. Minute straight conic teeth disposed in bands on the jaws, with an 
intermediate free space in the middle ; a patch of similar teeth on the vomer; several series 
of longer and more acute and recurved teeth on the palatines. 
The dorsal fin arises 3°4 distant from the end of the snout, and nearly above the middle of 
the pectorals ; it is united to, and continuous with the caudal: all its rays are stoutly spinous 
