Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 841 



foliaceous expansions ; opercles unarmed. Mouth moderate, oblique, the 

 jaws subequal. Teeth villiform, mostly in two rows, the inner row 

 largest; palate toothless. One dorsal, with 2 or 3 spines and 10 to 16 

 rays. Anal inserted below last rays of dorsal, with 1 spine and 8 or 9 

 rays. Ventrals thoracic, with 7 rays. Caudal forked. Deep sea. Very 

 close to Melamphaes, from which it chiefly differs in possessing 2 or 3 dor- 

 sal spines instead of 6. Perhaps the two groups should be merged in one, 

 as has been done by Giinther and Gilbert. (-xfojKTpov, spur ; u^oc, shoulder ; 

 "two spines, one on each side of the nape, springing forward from the 

 shoulder bones, give a strange appearance to the fish.") 



a. Dorsal rays III, 15 or III, 1C. 



I. Nape with a spine on each side, springing from the shoulder bones. 



SUBORBITALIS, 1222. 



ll>. Nape without spine as above; bones of head firm, without papery expansions; maxil- 

 lary reaching vertical from posterior margin of eye. LUQUBRIS, 1223. 

 a<7. Dorsal rays II, 11 to 13. 



c. Head 3 in length; pectoral nearly or quite as long as head. BEANII, 1224. 



d. Eye large, 4% in head. 



dd. Eye small, 7 in head. CRASSICEPS, 1225. 



cc. Head 2 in length; pectoral 1% in head; head with high thin crests above; snout with 



a slender spine; eye small, 1% in head. CBISTICEPS, 1226. 



1222. PLECTROMUS SUBORBITALIS, Gill. 



Head 3 ; depth 2f . D. Ill, 16 ; A. I, 8 ; P. 14 ; V. I, 7 ; scales about 30-6: 

 the exposed margins of the few scales present marked with coarse concen- 

 tric striae. Eye as long as snout and 5 times in head. Mouth oblique ; end 

 of maxillary reaching to below hind margin of orbit. Two spines, one on 

 each side of the nape, springing forward from the shoulder bones. Man- 

 dible projecting slightly. Gill membranes deeply cleft, free from the isth- 

 mus behind; gill rakers moderate, about 15 below angle of first arch. A 

 single series of weak, somewhat scattered, curved teeth on the intermax- 

 illa and mandible. Dorsal origin over the sixth row of scales ; length of 

 dorsal base equal to head. Anal origin under seventeenth ray of dorsal ; 

 anal base nearly as long as head. Pectoral 3 in body ; ventral inserted 

 under base of pectoral. Color black. The type of the species, 3yfc inches 

 long without the caudal, was obtained by the Albatross from Station 2036, 

 at a depth of 1,735 fathoms. Another (No. 35451, U. S. Nat. Mus.) was 



almost vertical; the cranium above with a naked skin extending from the nape forward to the 

 nasal region, covering large muciferous cavities separated by osseous bars and with lateral crests 

 simulating those of crested Scorpamids. Suborbital bones with the superficial a ea narrow and 

 emitting sulcate spiniform processes; cheeks covered with skin as well as periorbital region. 

 Preoperculum with its inner fold parallel with, but widely separated from, the external margin; 

 the latter is rounded at the angle, the posterior limb is vertical, and a short horizontal one is 

 developed. Operculum normally developed, with large cycloid scales, and, behind, radiating 

 ridges; suboperculum extending as a membranous border behind; interoperculum moderate. 

 Eye moderate (its diameter equaling a quarter of the head's length) and entirely in the anterior 

 half of the head. Mouth with the cleft moderately oblique. Upper jaw not protractile; the 

 intermaxillaries protracted backward almost as far as the supramaxillaries; the latter have nor- 

 mally dilated smooth ends. Lower ja\v quite deep, curved, with smooth skin, with the raini 

 inclined inward below and nearly contiguous, and with a truncate chin. Teeth rather small, 

 curved, and pointed, in t\vo rows in each jaw, those of the upper closing around the lower jaw, 

 and the teeth of the external row (at least in the lower jaw) smaller than those of the internal. 

 Branchial apertures normally cleft. Shoulder girdle emitting a spine on each side, behind the 

 nape. 



