2062 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



plates on breast. Branchiostegal membranes and lower side of man- 

 dible everywhere naked; two or 3 moderate plates in front of pectoral 

 tin; membrane between ventrolaterals, behind vent, with numerous 

 imperfectly developed plates; none between ventrals and vent. Head 

 4-hedral, tapering to a long snout, its width 6f in length of body, nearly 

 vertical; orbits high up, about 4 in head. Supraocular ridges high, with 

 a very strong spine ; occipital ridges long, rising gradually and ending in 

 a single strong spine; temporal ridges moderate, ending in a small, 

 suprascapular spine; suborbital, preopercle, and opercle radially striated ; 

 suborbital ridge low down on cheek, shelf-like in front on preorbital, with 

 2 small spines, a minute one on preorbital and a strong one on preopercle. 

 Opercle with a slight ridge, minute spine or none; interorbital space 

 concave, about 3-| in head, flat between the supraorbital ridges, covered 

 with skin and with 2 minute ridges extending upward longitudinally 

 from near the mesethmoidal spines; rostrum projecting far beyond pre- 

 inaxillaries, with a pair of spines directed horizontally forward, behind 

 these another pair, farther apart, curved backward and outward. Snout 

 from premaxillaries to tip of spine equal to orbit ; maxillary reaching fron^ 

 of orbit; lower jaw very short, broad, falling far short of upper. Teeth 

 weak, few, excessively few and weak on upper jaw, none on vomer and 

 palatines. A pair of complex groups of barbels on under side of tip of 

 snout; another group at tingle of mouth, apparently made up of 4 subor- 

 dinate groups 1 near tip and 2 at tip of maxillary, and 1 at angle of 

 mouth ; a pair of double barbels at sides of lower jaw. Dorsal fins close 

 together ; anal beginning a little in front of second dorsal ; pectorals about 

 6 in body, their base 2| in their length, nearly truncate. Ventrals of female 

 equal orbit, in male twice as long ; width of caudal at base 3 in the length. 

 Lateral line 37 to 39. Color grayish brown above, yellowish below, sides 

 with narrow undulating brownish black vertical streaks in intervals 

 between plates; first dorsal with a broad band of darker along middle, 

 black edged; pectorals with a dark bar near base; several more or less 

 distinct cross bars of darker, formed by long dark streaks on rays ; infe- 

 rior third of fin nearly uniformly dark; ventrals light in female, dark in 

 male; anal edged with black posteriorly; caudal olivaceous, tipped with 

 darker. Length 10 to 12 inches. Kamchatka to Puget Sound, in mode- 

 rate depths, everywhere the most abundant of the family. Very common 

 in Puget Sound. The specimens here described from the Aleutian Islands. 

 According to Dr. Gilbert, this is one of the most abundant species in 

 Alaska, occurring everywhere in shallow water around the Aleutian 

 Islands and in Bristol Bay. (acipenserinuSj sturgeon-like; Acipenscr, stur- 

 geon.) 



Agonus acipenserinus, TILESIUS, M6m. Acad. Petersb., IV, 422, pi. 11, fig. 163, 1811, Unalaska; 



GUNTHER, Cat. Fishes, n, 212, I860; JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 332. 

 Podothecus peristethus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. xm, 1861, 77, 259, Simeahmoo, 



Washington Territory. 



Phalangistes acipenserinus, PALLAS, Zoog. Rosso- Asiat., Ill, 110, pi. 1811. 

 Aspidophorus acipenserinus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., IV, 207, 1829. 

 Podothecus acipenserinus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 730, 1883. 

 Paragonus acipenserinus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., xm, 1861, 167. 



