1944 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



kkk. Preopercle without spine, its edge covered by smooth skin, a trace of the 



upper spine rarely present; skin smooth. 



t. Dorsals separate. LEIOPOMUS, 2334. 



tt. Dorsals connected, long and low, a shallow notch between spinous and 



soft parts. PKINCEPS, 2335. 



Subgenus PEGEDICTIS, Rafinesque. 



2314. COITUS ASPER, Richardson. 



(PRICKLY BULLHEAD.) 



Head 3 to 3fc; depth 4|. D. IX or X, 19 to 21 ; A. 17 or 18, rarely 15 or 16 ; 

 eye 5 in head; maxillary 24-; pectoral 1; ventral 2; caudal If. Body 

 deepest at shoulders; caudal peduncle moderately slender, its depth a 

 little less than length of snout. Head wedge-shaped as viewed from 

 above; mouth quite at lower profile of head; maxillary to below posterior 

 margin of pupil ; palatine teeth in a very narrow band on front of palatines 

 only ; preopercular spine long and sharp ; interorbital rather wide, about 

 equal to vertical diameter of eye; pectoral barely reaching front of anal; 

 ventrals not reaching vent ; dorsals slightly connected at base. Prickles 

 coarse and stiff, not closely crowded ; lateral line complete ; vent in the 

 middle of the body in the large majority of specimens, sometimes slightly 

 nearly tail. Color grayish olive, much spotted and mottled with blackish ; 

 all fins, except anal and ventrals, with dark wavy cross lines. The coarser 

 prickles, more anterior position of vent, and flatter interorbital space 

 separate Coitus asper, at least subspecifically, from the Sacramento River 

 form, Coitus gulosus. Streams of the Cascade Range from Vancouver Island 

 to Oregon, abundant in cold streams; extremely variable, almost every 

 variation in the roughness of the skin being found. Length a foot; the 

 largest species of Coitus. Here described from, a specimen from Walla 

 Walla. 



Dr. Gilbert notes : 



Five specimens taken in a small stream emptying into Departure Bay, 

 Vancouver Island. The head is naked in all of these, and the prickles 

 absent on belly, along bases of spinous dorsal and anal fin, and on caudal 

 peduncle. D. VIII or IX, 21 or 22 ; A. 16 to 18. 



Still other specimens from Vancouver Island and about Port Townsend 

 have a band of small prickles extending along lateral line to middle of 

 second dorsal, (asper, rough.) 



Coitus asper, RICHARDSON, Fauna Bor.-Amer., Fish., 295, 1836, Columbia River at Fort 



Vancouver. (Coll. Dr. Gairdner.) 

 Trachidermis richardsoni, HECKEL, Ann. Wiener Mus. 1840, 162, Columbia River; after 



RICHARDSON. 



Centridermichthys asper, RICHARDSON, Voyage Sulphur, Ichth., 74, 1845; GUNTHER, Cat., 



n, 170. 



Cotlopsig asper, GIBARD, U. S. Pac. R. R. Surv., x, Fish., 51, 1858. 

 Uranidea aspera, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 694, 1883. 



2315. OTTUS GULOSUS (Girard). 



Head 3; depth 4; D. VIII or IX, 19 to 21; A. 16 to 18; eye 5 to 6 in head ; 

 maxillary 2; pectoral 1; caudal 1-i. Body not much compressed, the 



