1972 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



slightly longer than eye; opercular spine granulated at base; small cirri 

 above eye and elsewhere on head, usually 1 on end of maxillary; cra- 

 nial boties mostly covered by. skin; lateral line with some bony plates, 

 which are most distinct anteriorly, these very much smaller than in 

 Enoplmjs Uson, but somewhat similar in structure; interocular space very 

 narrow, its ridges continuing backward, serrated, each ending in a sharp 

 spine; no trace of slit behind last gill; spinous dorsal low; anal small; 

 pectorals reaching front of anal; ventrals moderate. Colors variegated, 

 the dark markings sometimes red, corresponding to the hue of red alga?. 

 Coasts of northern Europe; abundant in rock pools; said to stray to 

 Greenland, but there is no sure evidence of its occurence in any Ameri- 

 can waters. Liitken refers the Greenland records to M. scorpius. (Eu.) 

 (fiovfiakig, buffalo.) 

 Coitus bubalis, EUPHRASEN, KONG. Yet. Nya Abhandl. 1786, 65, Taf. 3, fig. 2, 3, Sweden; 



GUNTHER, Cat., n, 164; DAY, Fish. Gt. Brit. Ireland, 51, 1880; JORDAN & GILBERT, 



Synopsis, 701 ; BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1885, 166. 

 Cottus maculatus, FISCHER,* Jahrb. Wissensch. Aust., Hamburg, n, 78, taf. 2, fig. 8, 1885, 



Barbados. 



2346. MTOXOCEPHALUS jENETJS (Mitcbill). 



(GRUBBY.) 



Head 2f ; depth 4. D. IX, 13 or 14; A. 10 or 11; V. I, 3. Head rather 

 broad, covered with smooth thin skin ; no cirri ; a few very small warts 

 between occipital ridges; maxillary 2 in head, reaching to just beyond 

 pupil ; supraocular and occipital ridges prominent, each with a low, blunt- 

 ish spine ; the region between the supraocular spines rather convex, the 

 space before and behind it concave; nasal spines moderate; upper pre- 

 opercular spine shorter than eye, nearly twice length of next spine, about 

 reaching middle of opercle. Lateral line complete; each pore with a con- 

 cealed cartilaginous plate, scattered, concealed asperities on skin of sides; 



* Concerning the identity of Cotius maculatus, Fischer, with Acanthocottus bubalis, Dr. 

 Tarleton H. Bean has the following pertinent remarks : 



"In a recent extract from the annals of the Scientific Association of Hamburg, Dr. J. 

 G.Fischer has described and figured a species of Cottus from Barbados. The anomaly 

 of finding a species of this genus within the tropics induced me to examine the descrip- 

 tion very carefully, to ascertain, if possible, the source of Dr. Fischer's specimen. There 

 is no reasonable doubt that the type of his new species is the common Father-lasher of 

 Europe, and it is a source of wonder that the species should have been misinterpreted. 

 After a study of our examples of Coitus bubalis from Bergen and Christiauia, in Norway, 

 and Leeds, England, I have no hesitation in stating that they agree perfectly with the 

 description and figure of Cottus maculatus. In some unknown way the locality of Dr. 

 Fischer's specimen has been incorrectly given, and thus the describer of the supposed 

 new species has been completely misled. The differential characters claimed by Dr. 

 Fischer for Cottus maculatus do not serve at all to separate his species from C. bubalis. 

 The arrangement and number of the spines on the preoperculum are precisely the same 

 in our examples of Cottus bubalis as represented in the figure of C. maculatus. The ven- 

 tral and pectoral are not longer in our specimens than they are made to appear in the fig- 

 ure pi the alleged new species. The notion seems to have got abroad among the European 



C81ecies Ptotycephaus in the PotomavenPfcc 



uotbuo <onus (Acantnocottug) anceps. (Cottus (Acanthocottuts) anceps, Sau- 



yage Nouv. Archiv. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris (2), 1, 1878, p. 145, pi. 1, fig. 13.) As a general rule 



HI 1 Iriati *" intrust the novelties offish distribution in our country to its resident 



