480 PROCEEDINGS OF THE XATIONAL MUSEUM. vouxxiv. 
no spines on head; lower jaw with a partly concealed, saber-like 
attachment on either side, as in Gnathagnus elongatu^, but without 
sharp spines; anterior nostril with a large tube, the posterior part of 
which has a slender filament. 
Spinous dorsal absent; median rays of soft dorsal highest, their 
length a little greater than depth of caudal peduncle; caudal truncate 
posteriorly, its length 4i in body; anal inserted in advance of the 
dorsal, the thirteenth or fourteenth ra}^ longest, contained about three 
times in head, the rays when depressed reaching farther posteriori}^ 
than do those of the dorsal, neither touching base of caudal; pectoral 
rounded, its length -ii in body; ventrals pointed, 2 in head. 
Color in spirits, silvery white, brownish above, with manj^ small, 
dark brown spots separated by narrower interspaces, the spots extend- 
ing forward on head and snout; sides of head with minute, dark 
specks; fins with a little dusky color, the caudal and pectorals darker 
toward their bases. 
Described from a specimen 73 millimeters long, type No. 6544 
Leland Stanford Junior University Museum, from Tomakomaki in 
the province of Iburi, Hokkaido. A second specimen from Volcano 
Bay is in the museum at Hakodate. 
Family IV. CHAMPSODONTID^E. 
We place provisionally in a separate famih^ a single genus, Cliamp- 
sodon^ apparently allied on the one hand to Uranoscojms and on the 
other certainly to the Chiasmodontida with which -Dr. Boulenger places 
it. But the real affinities of CJwlasonodou are equally uncertain. The 
family characters are included below. 
9. CHAMPSODON Gunther. 
Champsodon Gunther, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, p. 102 {vorax). 
Body rather elongate, fusiform, covered with small, rough, warty, 
scarcely imbricate scales; belly naked; head fiat above, with vertical 
sides; cheeks and snout scaly; the eyes rather small, high, and near 
together; mostly directed upward; ji small cilium over each eye; mouth 
large, very oblique, the lower jaw projecting; both jaws with slender 
teeth of unequal size, some of those below longest; many of them long, 
slender, depressible canines; a few teeth on vomer; none on palatines; 
upper jaw with a double notch at tip; preopercle with a strong, curved 
spine at its angle, the spine about as long as eye; the ascending limb 
with small teeth; opercle rounded, unarmed; preorbital broad, with a 
flat, three-lobed spine. Top of head with a low ridge on each side 
from snout to nape; gill-openings wide, the gill membranes separate, 
free from the isthmus; isthmus long and narrow, not forming a hump, 
gill-rakers slender, of moderate length; gills 4. a slit behind the 
