N0.1259. DISCOBOLOUS FISHES OF JAPAN— JORDAN AND SNYDER. 347 
Family 11. LIPARIDID^E. 
THE SEA SNAILS. 
Bod}' more or less elongate, tadpole-shaped, subcylindrieal anteri- 
orly, compressed behind, the head depressed; both head and body cov- 
ered with smooth, thin skin, which is very lax. Head broad, obtuse, 
the snout short, wide, and blunt; third suborbital bone styliform behind, 
formino- a bonv stay articulating- with the preopercle, as in CottidcB; 
mouth moderate, anterior, terminal, the jaws equal, or the lower 
included; jaws with bands of small teeth, which are simple or more 
or less tricuspid, usuall}^ close set, forming a pavement; no teeth on 
vomer or palatines; premaxillaries protractile, little movable; oper- 
cular bones unarmed; interopercle slender, ray-like, overlying the 
branchiostegals; gill openings small, the membranes joined to the broad 
isthmus and to the humeral arch below. Branchiostegals 6. Gills 3i, 
no slit behind the last; pseudobranchia? small or w^anting; dorsal fin 
rather long, the spines feeble and flexible, low, similar to the soft 
rays; anal long, similar to the soft dorsal; ventral fins 1, 5, the two 
completely united and forming the bony center of an oval sucking 
disk, or else sometimes entirelj^ wanting; pectoral fin very broad, the 
base procurrent, extending forward under the throat, the outline usually 
eraarginate, some of the lower rays being produced; tail diphycercal; 
caudal fin short, convex; vertebrae numerous, 35 to 50; pyloric cseca 
numerous; no air bladder; stomach siphonal. U-shaped, intestine 
elongate. Small, sluggish fishes, nearl}- all of the Arctic seas, a 
few belonging to the Antarctic; found adhering to rocks at various 
depths. The group is evidently closeh' allied to the Cottklce^ and its 
origin must be sought in the ancestors of such types as Psychrolutes 
and Cottunculus^ the Cyclo2)ter{dw representing a coordinate phase of 
degradation, 
Li PA RIDING. 
a. Ventral disk present, large or small. 
h. Ventral disk normal, composed of 13 lobes, a median one in front and one 
corresponding to each of the fin rays, each lobe with a decidnons horny- 
covering or papilla. Teeth close set in pavement-like bands, tricuspid in 
the young, some or all becoming angular or bluntly arrow-shaped in the 
adult; caudal fin well developed, rather broad, 
c. Dorsal fin continuous, the spines not separated from the soft rays. 
d. Nostrils, 2 on each side, the posterior in a more or less distinct tube. 
e. Tip of snout without barbels Liparis, 3. 
ee. Tip of snout with several barbels or tubular projections; substance of 
body translucent C'rystallias, 4. 
