Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2443 



distance from snout to front of dorsal ; eye 2 in snout, 11 in head. Begin, 

 ning at a short distance behind origin of dorsal, small, oblong, cycloid 

 scales, closely imbricated, cover a strip of the body along the lateral line; 

 the scaled area gradually widens backward until, behind the vent, only a 

 very narrow strip along bases of dorsal and anal is naked. Dorsal begin- 

 ning over upper angle of gill opening; first spine \ as long as the seventy- 

 first or longest; caudal 11 in length; pectoral 3 in head. Brownish 

 yellow; a brown stripe along lateral line, another along back, a third 

 along base of anal. Length 30 inches. Coast of southern Alaska to 

 Puget Sound; not rare about Seattle, (virgatus, striped.) 

 Delolepis virgatus, BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1881, 466, Kingcombe Inlet, British 

 Columbia; Port Wrangel, Alaska (Coll. Capt. H. E. Nichols. Types, Noa. 29149 

 and 29150, U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; JORDAN & STARKS, Fishes Puget Sound, in Proc. Cal.Ac. 

 Sci. 1895, 848. 



923. CRYPTACANTHODES, Storer. 



Cryptacanthodes, STORER, Kept. Fish. Mass., 28, 1839 (maculatus). 



Body long and slender, compressed, naked, without lateral line ; head 

 cuboid, with vertical cheeks and conspicuous muciferous cavities; eyes 

 small, placed high; mouth large, very oblique, the very heavy lower jaw 

 prominent in front ; jaws, vomer, and palatines with stoutish conical teeth, 

 in few series. Gill openings prolonged forward below, narrowly attached 

 to the isthmus. Dorsal fin of stoutish spines, hidden in the skin ; dorsal 

 and anal joined to caudal; pectorals short; ventrals wanting. (upvTtTOS, 

 hidden; dnarBchdrj^ spined.) 



2790. CRYPTACAKTHODES MACULATUS, Storer. 



(WRY-MOUTH; GHOST-FISH.) 



Head6&; depth 13. D.LXXIII; A. 50. Eyes small, placed high, not 

 so wide as the interorbital space, which has 2 ridges and 3 pits ; orbital 

 rim raised ; 2 deep pits behind each eye at the temples ; a deeper pit on the 

 top of head between them ; a raised ridge continued backward on each side 

 of head behind orbital rim; maxillary extending to beyond eye ; pseudo- 

 branchise small; pectorals short, 3 in head, their tips reaching beyond 

 front of dorsal; vent a little in front of middle of body. Light brownish, 

 with several series of smallish dark spots, arranged in more or less reg- 

 ular rows, from head to base of caudal ; vertical fins closely spotted with 

 darker; head above thickly speckled; body sometimes (" inornate*") 

 entirely immaculate. Length 24 inches. Labrador to Long Island Sound; 

 not very common; a few specimens have been taken at Woods Hole. 

 The ghost-fish form (inornatus) occasionally seen, is doubtless an albino. 

 (maculatus, spotted.) 



Cryptacanthodes maculatus, STORER, Kept. Fish. Mass., 28, 1839, coast of Massachusetts; 

 DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna : Fishes, 63, pi. 18, fig. 50, 1842 ; GATHER, Cat., m, 291, 1861 , JOR- 

 DAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 780, 1883. 

 Ophidium imberbe, PECK, Amer. Acad., 2d part, II, 1804, 46, pi. 4, New Hampshire; A. 49; 



P. 14; C. 22; not of LlNN^EUS. 



Fierasfer borealis, DEKAY, New York Fauna : Fishes, 316, 1842, New York; after PECK. 

 Cryptacanthodes inornatus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 332, Coast of Massachu- 

 setts; albino form. 



