ICHTHYOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE ALBATROSS. 453 
_ the eyes. Otherwise no pits or projection on head. A shallow triangular depression 
on occiput. Gill-slit much less oblique than margin of preopercle, its length 14 
_ times the distance between lower ends of gill-slits, the latter reaching the vertical 
from middle of opercles. 
Dorsal fin of rather flexible spines, not concealed ix heavy fin membranes. The 
origin of dorsal falls immediately behind axil of pectorals. Hinder margin of occi- 
put midway between front of dorsal and middle of eye. Origin of anal well in 
advance of middle of length, its distance trom tip of snout contained 1% times in its 
distance from base of caudal. Pectoral short, rounded, its base separated by a wide 
prepectoral area from gill-slit, the width of area three-fourths length of fin, the 
latter eqnaling distance from tip of snout to middle of eye. No ventrals. Body 
covered with lax naked skin, which also covers but does not obscure rays of dorsal 
and anal fins. No pores to lateral line. 
Color inlife: Reddish on head, body, and fins, due to the blood vessels in the skin. 
A single specimen, 180 mm. long, dredged north of Unalaska Island, at station 3312; 
depth 45 fathoms. TYPE USNM 48620 
Family PTILICHTHYIDZ. 
124. Ptilichthys goodei Bean. 
A third specimen of this little-known fish was taken by dredging in shallow water 
at the entrance to Unalaska Harbor, station 3311; depth, 85 fathoms. 
The genus Ptilichthys, of which this species is the sole representative, has been 
doubtfully referred by Dr. Bean to the Mastacembelide, a family of fresh-water 
fishes inhabiting the East Indies, characterized by having the shoulder girdle poste- 
riorly placed and not articulating with the cranium (order Opisthomi Gill). The 
necessity for preserving intact the unique type of the species prevented Dr. Bean 
from making any anatomical examination of Ptilichthys, and it was reserved for Dr. 
Theodore Gill, in the Standard Natural History, 1885, p. 259, to express his disbelief 
in the relationships which had been suggested and to make the fish the type of a 
peculiar family, the Ptilichthyide, to be placed provisionally among the blennioid 
series. His adherence to this view is again expressed in his list of ‘‘ Families and 
_ Subfamilies of Fishes,” appearing as the sixth memoir of volume V1, of the National 
Academy of Sciences. Hehas doubtless indicated the proper position of this peculiar 
_ fish as nearly as we are now able to determine it. An examination of its shoulder 
_ girdle shows it to be entirely normal. The post-temporal is not furcate, but is a 
very slender bony rod attaching to the epiotic region of the skull and giving loose 
attachment posteriorly to the almost equally slender posterotemporal. The latter 
overlaps the upper end of the clavicle in the usual manner. A postclavicle was not 
detected. The coracoid portion consists of a roundish oblong, perforated hypercora- 
coid meeting the hypocoracoid directly, without intervening cartilage. The curved 
_ line separating the two bones corresponds distally with the interspace between the 
first (upper) and second actinosts. The hypocoracoid is broad and short. Its 
mesially directed (i. e., inferior) process joins at its tip the clavicle, but is elsewhere 
separated from the latter by the usual elongate membranous interspace. The acti- 
nosts are four in number, of large size, hour-glass shaped. 
The jaws are normal, the premaxillary alone occupying the front and sides of 
upper jaw and bearing the teeth, while the maxillary is a broad bone lying behind 
it, overlapped proximally by the maxillary process of the palatines. Both vomer 
and palatines seem to be toothless. The alimentary canal is almost perfectly 
straight, with the anterior portion entirely enveloped in the long, narrow liver. At 
the pylorus occurs a short and abrupt V-shaped flexure, scarcely noticeable on 
account of the closeness with which the sides are joined and the fact that the width 
of the flexure is no greater than the cross diameter of the tube. Pyloric cwea are not 
evident. Anairbladder isentirely wanting. The ovary is single, apparently without 
oviduct, and contains in our specimen eggs which are comparatively very large. 
