2326 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



to beyond eye. Teeth small, those on the palatine largest; teeth of upper 

 jaw smaller than those of the lower; anterior teeth of the lower jaw in 

 about 2 series. Pectoral fins long, 1^ in head, reaching about to fifth anal 

 ray; last rays of dorsal and anal fully joined to the caudal. Color 

 olivaceous, with darker blotches; first dorsal black; under parts pale; 

 posterior portion of anal edged with dark. Pacific coast of North Amer- 

 ica, from Punta Arenas to Panama; rare. (Named for Capt. John M. Dow, 

 who obtained a fine specimen (now destroyed) from Panama.) 



Thalassophryne dowi, JOEDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1887, 388, Punta Arenas 

 (Type, No. 39085, U. S. Nat. Mus. Coll. Cornell University) ; JORDAN, Proc. Cal. Ac. 

 Sci. 1896, 231, pi. 38. 



Suborder XENOPTEEYG1I. 

 (THE CLINGKFISHES.) 



Breast with a broad sucking disk, between the wide-set ventral fins, 

 this formed from the skin of the breast, not from the ventral fins them- 

 selves. Ventral rays I, 4 or I, 5 ; no scales ; no spinous dorsal ; no sub- 

 orbital ring; palatine arcade materially modified ; no air bladder; verte- 

 brae in increased numbers; gill arches reduced. A well-marked group of 

 small fishes, constituting a single family, (c>o, strange ; itrepv*,, -fin.) 



Family CXCIX. GOBIESOCID^. 



(CLING-FISUES.) 



Body rather elongate, tadpole-shaped, broad and depressed in front, 

 covered by smooth, naked skin; mouth moderate; upper jaw protractile; 

 teeth usually rather strong, the anterior conical or incisor-like; posterior 

 canines sometimes present; suborbital ring wanting; no bony stay from 

 suborbital across cheek; opercle reduced to a spine-like projection con- 

 cealed in the skin, behind the angle of the large preopercle, this spine 

 sometimes obsolete; pseudobranchiiB small or wanting, gills 3 or 2|; gill 

 membranes broadly united, free or united to the isthmus ; dorsal fin on 

 the posterior part of the body, opposite to the anal and similar to it, both 

 fins without spines; ventral fins wide apart, each with 1 concealed 

 spine and 4 or 5 soft rays. Between and behind the ventrals is a large 

 sucking disk, the ventrals usually forming part of it. This sucking disk, 

 which is wholly different in structure from that of Cyclopferus and Liparis, 

 is thus described by Dr. Gtinther: "The whole disk is exceedingly large, 

 subcircular, longer than broad, its length being (often) $ of the whole 

 length of the fish. The central portion is formed merely by skin, which 

 is separated from the pelvic or pubic bones by several layers of muscles. 

 The peripheric portion is divided into an anterior and posterior part by a 

 deep notch behind the ventrals. The anterior peripheric portion is formed 

 by the ventral rays, the membrane between them and a broad fringe, 

 which extends anteriorly from one ventral to the other. This fringe is a 

 fold of the skin containing on one side the rudimentary ventral spine, but 



