Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2315 



dark, with few light cross bands. Panama ; locally common, close to the 

 preceding but with smaller teeth and fewer fin rays. The specimen exam- 

 ined by us collected by Dr. Gilbert. 



Batrachuis pacifici, GUNTHER, Cat., in, 173, 1861, Panama; GUNTHER, Fishes Centr. Amer., 



435, 1869. 

 Batrachoides pacifici, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 170 ; MEEK & HALL, Proc. Ac. 



Nat. Sci. Phila. 1885, 62. 



859. OPSANUS,* Rafinesque. 



(TOAD-FISHES.) 



Opsanus, RAFINESQUE, Amer. Monthly Mag. 1817,203 (cerapalus). 



Batrachus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 751, 1883, and of authors; not of BLOCH & 

 SCHNEIDER. 



Body comparatively short and robust, scaleless; head large, depressed; 

 jaws, vomer, and palatines each with a single series of strong blunt teeth; 

 mandible with an additional external series at symphysis; teeth of upper 

 jaw small ; dentary bones forming an acute angle at symphysis ; lips fleshy ; 

 upper angle of opercle with 2 diverging spines, more or less concealed in 

 the skin ; no poison glands ; spinous dorsal of 3 stout, short spines, the 

 second the longest ; axil of pectoral with a large foramen ; t lateral line 

 obscure, its pores not conspicuous ; young with a series of small, tufted 

 cirri on back and sides ; branchiostegals 6 ; vertebrae 12 -f- 22. Shore fishes, 

 mostly of temperate regions ; voracious creatures, living on the bottoms, 

 feeding on mollusks and Crustacea, and having great strength of jaw. 

 >, eye; O.VGO, upward; "the name means looking up." Rafinesque.) 



a. Nostrils with fleahy tentacle between them. Color brownish or dusky greenish, mot- 

 tled with darker and lighter, the dark on sides of body in large irregular blotches 

 extending from base of dorsal to about f distance to base of anal, and more or 

 less covered with small pale spots ; belly and chin plain white or yellowish. 



TAU, 2651. 



aa. Nostrils without fleshy tentacle. Color whitish or gray, everywhere blotched or 

 spotted with brownish yellow and black, the black spots on top of head smaller 

 and more numerous than on rest of body ; a large black blotch at base of spinous 

 dorsal, running up on fin; 3 black blotches along base of soft dorsal, which do 

 not extend J the distance to base of anal ; pectoral with black spots which do not 

 form cross bands ; ventrals with more dark markings than in tau : dorsal, anal, 

 and caudal marked nearly as in tau. PARDUS, 2652. 



2651. OPSANUS TAU (Linnseus). 



(TOADFISH; SAPO; SLIMER; OYSTER-FISH.) 



Head 2f; depth 4fc. D. 111-26 to 28; A. 24. Body robust, naked, the 

 head broad; mouth large, the very strong jaws closing with great force; 

 teeth blunt, those on mandible small anteriorly, regularly increasing in 



* The name Batrachus should not be used for this genus, as it was originally given 

 merely as a substitute for Batrachoides, having properly the same type, surinamensis, 

 wrougly supposed to be tau of Linnaeus, a species unknown to Lacepede and Bloch & 

 Schneider. No congener of tau was placed in Batrachus by Bloch & Schneider. Prior to 

 any use of Batrachus as the generic name of the naked toadfishes, allied to tau, Kafi- 

 nesque had given to one of the latter the generic name Opsanus, which can not be set aside 

 for Batrachus, the latter being an unnecessary synonym of Batrachoides. 



t The Brazilian genus, Marcgravia (cryptocentra) , in which this foramen is wanting, has 

 not been recorded from north of the equator. 



