NEW FISHES 223 



trals two, the height three fourths the head, filamentous at tip ; pec- 

 torals short, fan-shaped, with broad bases. 



Description of the Type. Head five in length ; depth f oiir^and 

 four fifths ; eye eight in head, interorbital four ; snout three and 

 three fifths ; maxillary one and four fifths ; D. 105 ; A. 82 ; C. 10; P. 

 24; V. 2 ; scales 11-135-38. 



Vertical outline of body subfusiform, tapering from about the 

 eighth dorsal ray ; posteriorly compressed and attenuate to a point. 

 Head broad and flat above with a furrow on each side of vertex run- 

 ning forward to above eye ; sides of the head nearly vertical. Snout 

 broad and bluntly rounded, tip formed by ciliated portion above pre- 

 maxillary ; mouth wide, horizontal, with included mandible ; maxillary 

 long, extending behind the anterior border of eye a distance equal to 

 length of snout, only the posterior lower edge exposed. Teeth small 

 and rather blunt, in broad close-set villiform bands in both jaws, the 

 inner mandibular series slightly enlarged ; arranged in an oblong patch 

 on palatines and in a large diamond-shaped patch on vomer. Tip 

 of the snout fringed with narrow or ligulate, ciliated flaps ; the man- 

 dible with shorter similar cilia at its tip. Opercular bones without 

 spines, their angles rounded. Head without evident muciferous canal 

 openings. Gills four, a slit behind the last, free from the isthmus; 

 pseudobranchiae represented by six or seven short filaments ; gill-rakers 

 one-J-two, stout, club-shaped and shorter than the gill-filaments, armed 

 with small teeth similar to those on the pharyngeal bones. Scales 

 cycloid, covering entire body and head, absent only on premaxillary, 

 maxillary, anterior portion of snout, margin of mandible, and tips of 

 fins ; exposed portion of the scales about one half diameter of eye in 

 length. Lateral line slightly undulate, beginning above opercle, 

 curving slightly and following outline of back, extending slightly 

 beyond middle of dorsal fin ; running between the scales, dorsal fin 

 beginning slightly behind the base of pectoral ; all the rays of 

 about equal height, six and one third in head. Anal beginning at 

 anus, equal to dorsal in height and similar to it in shape ; caudal 

 fin pointed, slightly longer than the height of the dorsal ; not differen- 

 tiated from vertical fins. Pectorals with wide bases, fan-shaped, the 

 middle rays longest, length one and two thirds in head ; ventral com- 

 posed of two rays, united for half their length, filamentous at tip, 

 outer ray the shorter, about three fourths the length of inner ray, 

 which is one and one third in head. All the fins excepting the ven- 

 trals densely scaled to their tips, which are free and filamentous. Air- 

 bladder large, oval, posteriorly broader and rounded, more pointed 



