2028 Bulletin //, United States National Museum, 



2396. GILBERT1XA SIGOLTJTES, Jordan & Starts. 



Head 3; depth 4. D. VIII, 18; A. 14; eye 4 in head; interorbital 

 2|; maxillary 2; ventrals 2; pectorals 1; caudal 2; base of dorsal If 

 in length of body ; base of anal 3. Body rather slender, robust anteri- 

 orly, compressed posteriorly, the greatest breadth and depth at shoulders. 

 Head large, the nape slightly produced ; mouth large and broadly rounded, 

 oblique, the jaws about equal, maxillary extending to posterior margin 

 of eye, its end buried under the skin of the cheek ; eyes placed high, the 

 interorbital space very wide and slightly convex, its width about 14 times 

 that of the eye; the posterior end of mandible very prominent, mandible 

 fl-shaped, its ranii approaching each other posteriorly; bones of head 

 cavernous, largely made up of cartilage, the mandible especially so; an- 

 terior end of preorbital forming a blunt spine over mouth ; process of 

 prem axillary prominent; a couple of blunt projections behind each eye; 

 upper part of shoulder girdle projecting, forming a blunt spine on nape 

 above gill slit, a row of large pores around suborbital ring, and along 

 under part of mandible no opercular spines. Head and body covered 

 with a very loose, naked, movable skin. Dorsal fin continuous, no notch 

 between spines and soft rays, the spines very slender, the first one inserted 

 ovei end of opercular flap ; dorsal spines covered by skin, but even the 

 first visible without dissection as they rise above the general integument 

 of body, the last reaching to base of caudal fin; anal lower than dorsal, 

 its origin midway between base of caudal fin and posterior margin of 

 eye, ending at about the same vertical that dorsal does, but not reaching 

 so far; pectorals long and slender, reaching past front of anal and over 

 halfway between their bases and base of caudal fin, adnate to the 

 body for the anterior third or fourth of their length; ventrals long, not 

 quite reaching to vent, aduate to the body for | their length; caudal 

 fin rounded. Color, light olivaceous; body and head with innumerable 

 dark points, giving the fish a dusky appearance; large dark blotch across 

 body at the posterior ends of dorsal and anal, a similar spot under pec- 

 toral ; head uniform dusky, lighter below ; belly white ; middle of pectoral 

 dark ; dorsals dark ; lower fins white. Puget Sound ; known from a single 

 small specimen 1| inches in length. (6iyi^ quiet; \ovrr]^ bather.) 

 Gilbertina sigolutes* JORDAN & STARRS, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1895, 811, pi. 86, Point Orchard, 

 near Seattle. (Type, No. 3129, L. S. Jr. TJniv. Mus. Coll. Edwin C. Starks.) 



NOTE. Remotely allied to the Cottidce is the Old World family Platyccphalidce, charac- 

 terized by the greatly depressed head and body. Its principal genus is characterized as 

 follows : 



PLATYCEPHALUS, Bloch & Schneider. 

 Platycephalus, BLOCK & SCHNEIDER, Syst.Ichth., 58, 1801 (scaber). 



Head broad, very depressed, more or less armed with spines ; body depressed anteriorly, 

 subcylindrical posteriorly, covered with ctenoid scales. Lateral line present. Two dor- 

 sal fins, the first spine isolated from the others. Veutrals thoracic, but rather remote 

 Irom the root of the pectorals ; no pectoral appendages. Jaws, vomer, and palatine bones 

 with bands of villiform teeth. Air bladder none ; pyloric appendages in moderate nran- 

 T!V yneaia and the Australian seas, through all the Indian seas to the eastern coast 

 trica. (Gunther.) Two species of this genus have been described from American 

 ers, in both cases apparently by error, as no American ichthyologist has found any 

 cimens of either. (n\arv^ broad ; ,cef>A>j, head.) 



speci 



* Misprinted siyalutes in the orignal description 



