482 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.xxiv. 
of lower jaw dusky; caudal yellowish, its base blackish; other fins 
rather pale. 
Here described from a specimen 100 millimeters in length from 
Wakanoura. 
East Indian reg-ion in rather deep water, north to Japan. Many 
specimens were collected by us in Waka Bay at Wakanoura. Four 
others were dredged \)\ the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Alhatroas 
in Suruga Bay off Enoura. Length 05 to 105 millimeters. - 
{Vorax, voracious.) 
Family V. TRICHODONTID^. 
THE SAND-FISHES. 
Body rather elongate, compressed, naked. Head short, flat on top, 
the sides vertical. Eyes large, high up, but not superior. Mouth 
large, almost vertical; lower jaw projecting, its tip entering the 
profile; lips fringed; premaxillaries protractile; maxillarv verj- broad, 
without supplemental bone, not slipping under the very narrow pre- 
orbital. Teeth moderate, slender and sharp, but not setiform, in 
bands on jaws and vomer; palatines toothless; inner teeth of jaws 
depressible. Gill rakers short, slender; gill membranes narrowly 
united, free from the isthmus. Branchiostegals 5. Gills -1, a slit 
behind the fourth. Pseudobranchise large. Preopercle with 5 promi- 
nent spines, the 2 upper directed strongly upward, the 2 lower down- 
ward, the middle 1 downward and backward; no barbels; opercle 
small; strongly striate, unarmed; preorbital with spines; no suborbital 
stay. Lateral line obsolete. Dorsal fins separate, the first the larger, 
of numerous slender spines; anal fin elongate, without distinct spines, 
the raj^s of anterior third of the fin much shorter than the others, the 
beginning of the fin below middle of spinous dor.sal; pectorals with a 
very broad, curved, procurrent base; a broad lunate area between 
pectoral and gill opening, nearly covered by the opercle; soft rays of 
dorsal, anal, and pectoral fins all simple; ventrals I, 5, close together, 
thoracic, but behind the pectorals, the middle rays longest; caudal 
lunate, with many accessory rays, on a slender peduncle. Vertebrae 
numerous, IS in typical species. North Pacific; living in sand near 
the shore. The fringed lips and other characters seem to indicate the 
relationship of these fishes with the Uranoscopidce^ but according to 
Dr. Boulenger these indications are fallacious and the place of the 
family is next the Latrldldm. 
a. Firgt dorsal long and rather low, of 14 or 15 spines Trirliodon, 10. 
aa. First dorsal short and high, of 10 spines Arctosco])us, 11. 
