2484 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



projecting beyond it. Dorsal inserted behind middle of pectorals, the 

 nape equidistant from front of dorsal and base of rostral spine; pectorals 

 2f in head; longest ventral filament 2f in head; scales small, about as 

 in L. prorates, 180 transverse series, 28 in front of dorsal, continued for- 

 ward on top of head to front of pupil; cheeks and opercles scaly. Color 

 dusky olivaceous, lighter below; dorsal with a large black blotch on 

 anterior rays, the margin obscurely dusky ; anal broadly margined with 

 jet-black; caudal with median rays black at base, the outer rays and the 

 margin light; lining of gill cavity jet-black ; inside of mouth white ; per- 

 itoneum bright silvery. A single specimen 10 inches long. Coast of 

 Lower California. (Gilbert.) Much resembling L. prorates, differing in 

 dentition, in gill rakers, and in color. (tiTiyna, brand; idrtor, sail.) 



Leptophidium stigmatistium, GILBERT, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1890, 109, off Lower Cali- 

 fornia, at Albatross Station 2996, in 112 fathoms. 



2849. LEPOPHIDIUM PROFUNDOBUM (Gill). 



Head 6; depth 10. Body very slender; scales regularly arranged in 

 quincunx order, those on head extending to forehead, opercles, and 

 cheeks; snout high, projecting, armed with a concealed spinous hook; 

 teeth villiform, separated by an interval from an outer row of longer, 

 slender, movable teeth; eye longer than snout, 3^ in head; lateral line 

 obsolete behind; vent toward end of first third of length; ventral fins 

 short; gill rakers 8. Light rufous; vertical fins margined with black. 

 Gulf Stream, off the coast of Florida. (Gill.) One specimen known. 

 (profundorum, of the depths.) 



Leptophidium prof undorum, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 211, Gulf Stream, off the 

 Coast of Florida (Coll. Commodore Rodgers) ; GOODE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 

 347, 1896. 



Ophidium prof undorum, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 793, 1883. 



2850. LEPOPHIDIUM CERVIMJM (Goode & Bean). 



Head about 6f; depth about 10J; eye 4 in head; ventrals 3 in head. 

 Body elongate, slender; head slender, somewhat compressed; interorbital 

 area broad, convex, its width equal to length of snout, and 5| in head ; snout 

 sharp, conical, armed with a short but sharp spine, and somewhat over- 

 hanging mouth ; eye much exceeding length of snout ; maxillary extend- 

 ing nearly to vertical through posterior margin of orbit, 2f in head; 

 mandible extending behind same vertical, its length equal to that of head 

 without postorbital portion. Jaws, vomer, and palatines with narrow 

 bands of villiform teeth, some of which are noticeably enlarged (not 

 movable). Pseudobranchite present. Gill rakers short, 8 below angle of 

 first arch, 4 of which are rudimentary, the longest 5 in diameter of eye. 

 (In L. profundorum the gill rakers are slenderer and longer, though about 

 equally numerous on the first arch.) Scales in about 11 rows from the 

 origin of the dorsal to the median line of the body. Dorsal origin far 

 back, at a distance from the snout 4f in total length ; at a distance from 

 the eye equal to the head's length. (In L. profundorum this distance is f 

 of the head's length and the first ray of the dorsal is nearly over the 



