Jordan and Evermann. Pushes of North America. 1989 



tinct in young specimens. Nasal spines very small. Mouth wide, trans- 

 verse, oblique, the maxillary reaching vertical from hinder edge of pupil, 

 2 in head ; mandible with its triangular tip protruding well beyond upper 

 jaw in adults, the jaws nearly equal in young; length of snout equal to 

 interorbital width. Bands of short cardiform teeth on the jaws, and a 

 broad patch on vonier ; none on palatines. A conspicuous pore behind last 

 gill. Gill membranes almost wholly joined to the isthmus, the free border 

 scarcely noticeable, its width less than diameter of the small pupil. Eye 

 small, shorter than snout, 5A to GJ in head. Preopercle with 2 short strong 

 spines diverging backward, and a strong concealed point below directed 

 downward and forward; upper preopercnlar spine about equal to eye, but 

 little longer than the lower and reaching the distance from its base to 

 the tip of the opercular flap ; opercle with a well-marked longitudinal rib 

 ending in a sharp point ; scapular and subopercular spines present. Entire 

 top and sides of head, nape, and anterior dorsal region covered with small 

 dermal warts; snpraorbital and occipital tubercles with short filaments. 

 Space above the lateral line with an irregular series or double series of 

 large round spinous tubercles; a few scattered plates on sides below the 

 lateral line; axil smooth; plates of lateral line concealed in skin. Spinous 

 dorsal low, its longest spine H in second dorsal and 3 in head. In some 

 specimens a single line of small sharp tubercles, resembling spines, extends 

 each side of the rays of the second dorsal. The 2 dorsals are separated by 

 a narrow space; pectorals large, reaching front of anal, the lower rays 

 much thickened; caudal rounded; ventrals reaching $- distance to vent. 

 Dorsal IX, 14 ; anal 13 ; pectoral 18 ; ventral I, 3 ; lateral line 36 to 40. Color 

 dark olive brown above, with faint traces of blackish bars; sides spotted 

 or marbeled with whitish ; belly and lower parts generally white ; a black- 

 ish blotch on cheeks, 1 on opercle, and a third on front of mandible ; pec- 

 toral rays dusky, the membrane whitish, the fins crossed by 3 or 4 wavy 

 black bars, which sometimes join, inclosing oblong or roundish white areas ; 

 spiuous dorsal not banded, the dusky and translucent areas variously 

 arranged; soft dorsal with 5 oblique broad dusky bars; anal with 4 bars 

 sometimes uniting to inclose white spots ; caudal similar to pectoral and 

 anal ; brilliantly colored males are largely black on sides and below, with 

 many large, rounded, partially confluent pearly white spots. Length 6 to 

 11 inches. (Gilbert.) East shore of Bering Sea ; known from 13 specimens 

 from the Nushagak River, near its mouth ; 1 from Herendeen Bay on the 

 northern side of the Alaskan Peninsula and from Port Clarence (Scofield*). 

 (latus, broad; -ceps, head.) 



Cottus tceniopterus, BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1881, 248 ; BEAN, in TURNER'S Nat. Hist. 



Alaska, 94, pi. 6, 1886; not of KNER. 

 Acanthocottus laticeps, GILBERT, Kept. TJ. S. Fish Comm. 1893 (1896), 422, pis. 26 and 27, 



Nushagak River and Herendeen Bay, Alaska. (Coll. Albatross.) 

 Megalocottuc laticeps, SCOFIELD, in Jordan & Gilbert, Kept. Fur Seal Invest. 1898. 



* Mr. Scofield observes : " We took 4 specimens of this species at Port Clarence. They 

 differ from the types slightly in coloration. Our specimens are dark, almost black ; below 

 the anterior portion of the second dorsal is a darker saddle-like marking on the body; 

 the caudal is black at the base and has an undulating dark band on its posterior third; 

 the pectorals vary, being either banded or mottled. (One specimen has distinct bands on 

 1 pectoral while the others are simply mottled with black.) There is no slit behind last 

 gill arch." 



