FISHES GADTDAE HOMALOPOM U S. 



143 



sides and belly are lighter, often of a silvery white tint. The dorsals, caudal, and posterior 

 anal, often exhibit a darkish hue, caused by the accumulation of minute dark reddish dots. 

 The anterior anal, the ventrals, and the pectorals, are yellowish and unicolor. 



References to the figures. Plate XLa, fig. 5, represents, size of life, Morrhua proximo,, from 

 the Bay of San Francisco, California. Fig. 6 is a section of the anterior portion of the body. 

 Fig. 7, a scale from the dorsal region. Fig. 8, a scale from the abdominal region. 



List of specimens. 



HOMALOPOMUS, Girar . 



GEN. CHAR. General aspect of head and body elongated. Mouth large ; lower jaw longest, and protruding beyond the 

 upper. No barbel to the chin. Conical and acute teeth upon the premaxillaries (upper jaw) and dentaries (lower jaw). Similar 

 teeth upon the front of the vomer along its external margin. Palatine bones toothless. Tongue smooth. Gill apertures very 

 wide, and continuous under the head. Branchiostegals, seven on either side. Three dorsal fins ; second and third contiguous. 

 Two anal fins contiguous. Ventrals composed of seven rays. Upper surface of head and opercular apparatus covered with 

 minute scales. Cheeks smooth and scaleless. Scales covering the body small, or of moderate development, cycloid in structure. 



Svxt. Homalopomus, GRD. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VIII, 1856, 132. 



The specimen upon which the genus Homalopomus was based happening to have its fins 

 mutilated was the cause of the error which we now rectify. Half broken in the first and second 

 dorsals, the remaining portion, which is unarticulated, suggested the idea that they were spiny 

 rays, and the union, or rather the contiguity of the second and third dorsal fins, with a 

 depression in the outline, was supposed analogous to what is observed in Heterostichus, for we 

 were likewise deceived by the structure of the anal fins, which, being contiguous, and the rays 

 broken upon their extremities, the anterior one appeared as if composed of spiny rays. The 

 structure of the ventrals ought to have cautioned us against that mistake, but at that time we 

 had no confidence in those fins as affording exclusively safe characters of classification. 



The natural affinities of the genus Homalopomus are intermediate between Merlangus and 

 Merlucius, the dorsal and anal fins being constructed upon the pattern observed in Merlangus, 

 whilst the ventral fins are identical in structure with those of Merlucius. Had we not framed 

 this genus under misapprehended affinities we would have placed the following species in the 

 genus Merlangus or Merlucius, it was immaterial where, and await further information upon the 

 fishes of the North Pacific ocean. 



We have received one specimen from Dr. Ayres of his Merlangus productus, collected in the 

 Bay of San Francisco, California. The species is very closely allied to Homalopomus troworidgii, 

 and evidently belongs to the same genus, whether Merlangus, Merlucius, or Homalopomus ; and 

 if identical with H. trowbridgii, the specific name of productus will have to be restored to it as 



