64 MONOGRAPH OF THE FRESH WATER Ill. 
Cy ACPT EMERY... 
ON THE GENUS TRIGLOPSIS,! Girard. 
THERE are animals whose organization is specially adapted for the depths, and 
which are never or but seldom seen or met with at the edges of the water, on the 
sea beaches, or else on the shores of the lakes. The iron dredge has brought to 
light many such. 
There is another way of securing the inhabitants of the deep bottoms, which 
consists in opening the stomachs of the large wandering kinds, as they generally 
feed upon the small and inoffensive ones. The sole difficulty in this case is the 
digestive power of that organ, which in a short time has destroyed all the soft and 
delicate parts, the ornament of the solid frame, either bony or calcareous. 
The generic feature of Triglopsis does not consist in the possession of characters 
peculiar to itself alone, but rather in the association of characters which may indi- 
vidually be found to exist in other genera, and from whose combination results its 
peculiar physiognomy. 
The general form of the head and body reminds us of the genus Zrigla; by its 
smooth head, the structure of the mouth, and the first dorsal lower than the second 
it approaches Cotti; the elongated snout and head, and the presence of several 
spines on the preopercular, is an approximation towards Acanthocotti. The 
genus differs—from Trigla, by a smooth head and body, the first not being 
cuirassed, and the second not scaled, and by the first dorsal fin which is lower, than 
the second;—from Acanthocottus, by the want of spines on the head, which, as 
stated, is smooth; also by the first dorsal lower than the second, and by the shape 
of the mouth, the angles of which do not extend back of the eyes; and if it 
appear more deeply cleft than in Cottus, it is owing to the fact that the snout is 
pointed instead of being truncated ;—from Cottus it differs by its elongated snout 
and the presence of several spines on the preopercular, on the one hand, and by its 
more slender head and body, on the other. It is still more widely distinct from 
Cottopsis, with which it has no other affinities except those which entitle it to a 
place in the same family. 
Although our genus Triglopsis has no generic character belonging exclusively to 
it, it is important that we should recapitulate all those which we have just enume- 
rated, in connection with the genera which partake of some of them. Body and 
