FAMILY CYCLOPTERID.E. 305 



FAMILY CYCLOPTERID^. 



A small family, characterized by the ventrals being united into a disk or cup-shaped form. 

 Body smooth, and without scales. Eyes placed one on each side of the head. Branhcial 

 rays six. 



GENUS LUMPUS. Cuvier. 



Two dorsals ; the first often so much enveloped in a tuberculous skin, as to appear like a' 

 hump of the back. Second dorsal with rays, and opposite to the anal. Body deep and 

 rough, with bony tubercles. 



THE LUMP-FISH. 



LuMPnS ANGLOBnM. 



PLATE LIV. FIG. 175. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Lumpus mglorum. WiLLnoHBY, Historia Piscium, p. 208. 



Cyctopterus aruleut, The Blue Lump-fish. Mitchill, Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 480, pi. 2, fig. 7. 



C. lumpus. The Lump. RiCHABD&ON, Fauna Boreali Americana, Part 3, Fishes, p. 260. 



Lumpua vulgaris. Cotier, RSgne Animal, Vol. 2. ' 



L. id. Stober, Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 151. 



Characteristics. Blue. Three series of tubercles along the sides. Dorsal lump with a fissure 

 on its posterior part. Length ten to twenty inches. 



Description. Body suborbicular in its outline, compressed, more especially towards the 

 dorsal ridge. It is soft and flaccid, resembling a lump of jelly. Instead of scales, the body 

 • is covered with minute tubercles, and horizontal series of larger ones. From the anterior 

 •portion of the dorsal ridge, the outline slopes in a concave line to the orbits, where it becomes 

 abruptly declivous to the snout. The space between the orbital ridges, flat. On the top or 

 ridge of the back, is a series of from five to seven large compressed tubercles, and a smaller 

 row on the anterior slope. Behind the large tubercle, there is a deep oblique fissure ; poste- 

 rior to which the dorsal surface becomes flat, with a series of from three to five sharp unequal 

 tubercles on each side, the posterior largest. A series of large tubercles commences before 

 the eyes, curves over the pectorals, and then proceeds in: a straight line through the upper part 

 of the tail. Another ssries of which the first four are very large and closely appro.ximated, 

 commences a short distance above the ventral part of the branchial aperture, curves slightly 

 downward, and, with a slight interruption, passes through the lower part of the tail ; there is 

 still another series on each side of the abdomen, consisting of about six inequidistant large 

 tubercles. Eyes lateral, prominent. Nostrils double ; the anterior large and tubular ; the 

 posterior scarcely perceptible, when they will be found just within the first large tubercle, on 

 the superciliary ridge. Branchial rays four, slender. Mouth moderately large, broad ; the 



Fauna — Part 4. 39 



