424 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [82] 



lated to each other. Two of them, however (littoralis, elongatus), while 

 retaining the external form and appearance of the others, differ from 

 them widely in the form of the lower pharyngeal teeth and in the pres. 

 ence of gill rakers. These we have placed in a distinct subgenus, which 

 we have called Umbrula. Another species (ophicephalus) is also some- 

 what aberrant and represents a third subgenus (Oirrimcns). 



The species of Menticirrhus are all bottom fishes. The low, elongate 

 body, the large pectorals, and the obsolete air-bladder are all characters 

 related to this peculiarity of habit. 



ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF MENTICIRRHUS. 



a. Dorsal spines about 13 ; head very low, thick, sub-terete, the snout blunt and very 

 prominent ; lower pharyngeals with acute teeth ; gill-rakers 

 obsolete. (Cirrimens Gill.) 

 V. Body formed as usual in Menticirrhus; loug and low, little compressed ; head 

 with very convex cross-outlines, high in front, gibbous above 

 the nostrils ; profile depressed above eye ; snout 3^ in head ; 

 projecting for one-third its length ; eye small, 5 or 6 ; mouth 

 very small, inferior, the outer teeth in the upper jaw mod- 

 erately enlarged ; maxillary reaching to opposite middle of 

 eye, 3| in head; gill-rakers minute, reduced to little fleshy 

 projections; gill openings contracted, the membranes more 

 united below than in other species ; preopercle with flexible 

 cilia; lower pharyngeals small, the teeth mostly pointed; 

 spinous dorsal high, the longest spines li in head ; pectorals 

 short, 1£ in head, not reaching tips of ventrals ; caudal S- 

 shaped, the lower lobe the longer. Color, dark gray ; pec- 

 torals dusky. Head 4; depth 4. D. XII-I, 23; A. I, 8; 



scales 74 (pores) Ophicephalus, 94. 



act. Dorsal spines usually eleven ; head not terete, more depressed, with lower snout, 

 c. Gill-rakers obsolete, reduced to tubercular prominences, covered with teeth 

 similar to those on the other gill arches ; lower pharyngeals 

 narrow, the teeth villiform or cardiform, all of them acute 

 or conical, none with rounded heads (molar) ; teeth in the 

 outer series of upper jaw more or less enlarged ; scales on 

 breast large. (Menticirrhus.) 

 d. Soft dorsal rather short, its rays I, 18 to I, 22 ; snout prominent. 



j Snout very prominent, 3$ in head, its tip slightly turned upward, project- 

 ing beyond the premaxillaries for a distance about two-thirds 

 diameter of the eye; spinous dorsal elevated, its longest 

 spines 11 in head, reaching beyond front of soit dorsal; eye 

 large, but considerably smaller than in M. nctsus, 5-J in head; 

 mouth comparatively small, inferior, the maxillary reaching 

 middle of eye, 3-t in head; posterior margin of spinous dor- 

 sal deeply concave ; rays of soft dorsal low, subequal; caudal 

 deeply/- shaped, the upper lobe much the longer, 1£ in head ; 

 ventrals short, If in pectorals; pectorals 1} in head; lateral 

 line concurrent with the back. Color, bluish above, silvery 

 below; spinous dorsal dusky; lining of gill cavity and 

 inner side of pectorals dusky. Head 3£ in length ; depth 4. 

 I ). X-I, 22 ; A. I, 8 ; scales 6-50-10 Simus, 95. 



ee. Snout less prominent, about 4 in head, its tip not recurved ; dorsal spines 

 not elevated, the longest barely reaching soft dorsal, 1| in 

 head. 



