FAMILY GOBID^ ZOARCES, 157 



the dorsal fin 95.16.16, and the anal 115. The pectorals broad and rounded, digitated on 

 the margin, and composed of twenty rays ; it reaches to the seventeenth ray of the dorsal. 

 Ventrals feeble, with four delicate spines in each, enveloped in a thick membrane ; these 

 spines are 0*6 long. The vent is opposite the twenty-sixth dorsal ray, and the meatus for 

 the urine, communicating with a bladder which is 1 • 3 long, is placed • 4 behind the vent. 



Color, of the head, dark brown, mixed with green, with lighter hues on the- cheeks. Irides 

 yellow. Chin and inside of the mouth flesh-colored. Sides of the body and tail pale olive or 

 salmon-color. Abdomen faintly rosaceous. The dorsal fin dark green throughout its whole 

 length, hghter along its base, and with a faint yellow border on its margin. Nearly one-half 

 of the anal fin, from its commencement, is of a dark green color ; the margin tipped wdth 

 greenish yellow, which, about the middle, becomes the universal color of the fin. Pectorals 

 light olive-green, becoming darker at the base. 



Length, 20-0. Greatest depth, 2-0. 



Fin rays, D, 95,16.16 = 127; P. 20; V. 4 ; A. 115; C. 20. 



Except in color, I can find scarcely any differences between this and the preceding. It was 

 first described by Dr. Mitchill, who inadvertently named it ciliatus. If I have enumerated 

 aright the soft dorsal rays, a good specific character might be drawn from their number. It 

 is invariably smaller than the other species, and is supposed by some ichthyologists to be the 

 young. A specimen which is supposed to be the young of the Thick-lipped Eel-pout, and 

 which resembles the one now described in its general colors, is noticed by Dr. Storer as 

 having all its fins transparent. 



Its habits, and the time of its appearance, are the same as in the preceding species. 



