FISHES COTTIDAE ASPICOTTUS. 



65 



interradial membrane emarginated ; whilst the upper ones are more slender and bifurcated upon 

 their extremity, which is even with their membrane. 



Br. VI: VI; D XI, 19 ; A 13 ; C 6, 1, 5, 4, 1, 5 ; V I, 5 ; P 16. 



The skin is perfectly smooth ; the lateral line runs uninterrupted from the upper part of the 

 thoracic arch to the base of the caudal, following the middle of the flanks from the origin of the 

 second dorsal backwards. 



The ground color of the head, body, and fins is either of a light or a dark chocolate brown, over 

 which are spread, without any apparent order, black patches and streaks, giving the whole a 

 marmorated appearance. 



Reference to the figure. Plate XVI, figure 1, represents the profile view of Scorpcenichthys 

 marmoratus, somewhat reduced in size, and caught in the bay of San Francisco, California. 



List of specimens. 



ASPICOTTUS, Girard. 



GEN. CHAR. Bones of the head exposed and corrugated. Opercular apparatus armed with strong spines. Mouth mode 

 rately cleft; jaws equal. Teeth on the premaxillaries, dentaries, and front of the vomer ; none on the palatines. Gill 

 openings separated beneath by an isthmus ; branchiostegal rays six in number. Dorsal fins distinctly separated. Caudal 

 posteriorly rounded. Insertion of ventrals opposite the base of pectorals. Lateral line formed by a series of bony gcutellae 

 extending from head to tail. Skin otherwise smooth. 



Svx.AspicoUus, RD. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VII, 1854, 130 ; &, VIII, 1856, 133. 

 Clypeocottus, AtRfis, Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sc. 1, 1854, 12. 



To this genus is to be referred Coitus bubalis, of Euphrasen, an inhabitant of the Baltic and 

 Norwegian seas. The latter species is so closely related to A. bison, described below, that it is 

 only upon a careful comparison that the two can be distinguished. 



The genus is well characterized by the great development of the suborbital bones and the 

 presence of a lateral series of bony shields altogether different from the scale-like plates of He- 

 mitripterus and Artedius. 

 9 a 



