676 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



OpMdium barbatum MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 362, pi. I, 

 fig. 2, 1815. 



De Kay writes of the species as follows: 



This very rare and curious species was taken in a seine in the 

 harbor of New York in company with a school of the striped 

 bass. It is doubtless the O. barbatum of my venerable 

 friend, Dr Mitchill, which is too succinctly noted in the work 

 cited above. . . It has so much the habit of some of the Gadidae, 

 and more especially of the genus B r o t u 1 a , that our fisher- 

 men call it the little cusk. 



The fish inhabits the coast of the United States from New 

 York south to Pensacola and Texas. It is not very common. 

 It grows to the length of about 10 inches. A specimen was 

 taken in Great Egg Harbor bay during the winter of 1853-54, 

 but collectors who have visited the region since have not found 

 it again. In Gravesend bay, where the species is rare, an exam- 

 ple was obtained Oct. 24, 1894. The fish is known there as 



Slippery Dick. 



Suborder CRANIOMI 



Family TRIQLIDAE 



Gurnards 



Genus PRIONOTUS Lace'p&de 



Body subfusiform; profile of head descending to the broad, 

 depressed snout, which is much longer than the small eye; eyes 

 close together, high up; surface of head entirely bony, the bones 

 rough with ridges and granulations; scales on head few or none; 

 preopercle with one or two sharp spines at its angle; opercle 

 with a sharp spine; nape with two strong spines, a spine on 

 shoulder girdle; mouth rather broad; bands of small, almost 

 granular, teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines; gill membranes 

 nearly separate, free from isthmus; gill rakers rather long; 

 body covered with small, rough scales, which are not keeled; 

 lateral line continuous; scales on breast very small; dorsal fins 

 distinct, the first of 8 to 10 rather stout spines, the third usually 

 highest, but mostly shorter than head; anal fin similar to soft 

 dorsal; pectoral fin with the three lower anterior rays thickened, 

 entirely free from each other and from the fin; ventrals I, 5, 



