HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 81 



In this specimen, as well also as in those I previously examined, it is almost 

 impossible to make out the number of fin rays ; but the following, if not perfectly 

 accurate, is a near approximation: D. 5. P. 10. V. 4. A. 4. C. 16. Length 

 5 inches. 



Remarks. This species was first described by Bloch as the Coitus monopterygius, 

 and afterwards more minutely by Cuvier as the Aspidophorus monopterygius, in the 

 fourth volume of the " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons." Lacepede formed the genus 

 Aspidophoroides to receive the species above described, it being the only known 

 Aspidophorus with a single dorsal fin. At the time this genus was formed, the species 

 of which we have been speaking was supposed to have been brought from the East 

 Indies. Cuvier, however, in his description, says he has not received it from the East 

 Indies in any of his numerous collections from that quarter of the world ; and finally, 

 Richardson, in his " Fauna Boreali Americana," observed, " that it has lately been dis- 

 covered to be an inhabitant of the Greenland seas, so that this sub-genus belongs 

 entirely to the Northern hemisphere, and chiefly to the higher latitudes." Early in 

 May, 1838, Mr. Jonathan Johnston, Jr., sent me three specimens of this species, which 

 he had taken from the stomachs of haddock just caught within two miles of Nahant. 

 They were each more or less mutilated ; from one of them, however, my friend Jeffries 

 Wyman, M. D., was enabled to sketch the plate contained in my " Report oe the 

 Icththyology of Massachusetts." In 1848, Captain Nathaniel E. Atwood sent me a 

 specimen taken from a cod's mouth at Provincetown. This specimen, although 

 somewhat injured when received, has furnished me with the accompanying figures, 

 and given me an opportunity to revise my former description. Besides the specimens 

 above referred to, Mr. William O. Ayres procured two others, in February, 1851, from 

 the stomach of a halibut taken at Cape Cod ; and Mr. Stimpson one in May, from 

 the stomach of a haddock caught in Boston Bay. These are the only individuals I 

 have ever known to be taken south of Greenland. 



Massachusetts, STOEER. Greenland, RICHARDSON. 



GENUS VII. CRYPTACANTHODES, Noms. 



Body elongated, very much compressed, and gradually tapering to the tail. Des- 

 titute of scales. Head broad, with no projecting spines ; the scapular and humeral 

 spines, and the inferior edge of the preoperculum, prominent to the touch. Numerous 

 depressions in frontal, suborbitar, inferior maxillary, and preopercular bones ; branchi- 

 ostegous rays, seven ; mouth oblique ; a single dorsal fin, composed of strong spinous 



VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 12 



