Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2181 



ous short tentacles, some of tliein as long as the eye, arranged for the 

 most part in bunches of 4. Maxillary not reaching anterior margin of 

 orbit. Diameter of eye nearly 4 in greatest length of head, and exactly 

 | of total length of snout. Greatest width of head, over the preopercu- 

 lar ridges, nearly equal to its own length without the processes. Dorsal 

 origin over the upper angle of gill opening; longest spine equal to that 

 of postorbital portion of head ; anal origin about under origin of second 

 dorsal, a trifle farther back, and in the vertical through the space between 

 the seventh and eighth lateral scutes; the lin about as high as the dorsal; 

 caudal small, slightly emarginate, with tips slightly produced, length of 

 middle rays equal to that of dorsal; ventral origin in advance of the axil 

 of the pectorals, the fin extending slightly beyond vent, but not quite to 

 origin of anal, its length about twice length of dorsal. Pectoral rather 

 long, extending to ninth scute of lateral line and past vertical through 

 origin of anal; 29 rows of scutes. Color red; body and fins mottled and 

 blotched with darker. Known from 2 specimens taken off Barbados, West 

 Indies. Type from Blake Station LX, in. 123 fathoms; the other from 

 288 fathoms. (Goode & Bean.) (rtkarvg, broad; %0aA^, head.) 



Peristedion platycephalum, GOODE <fc BEAN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., xii, No. 5, 167, 1886, 

 off Barbados in 123 fathoms (Coll. the Blake) ; GOODE <fc BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 

 474, pi. CXIV, fig. 388, A, B, 1896. 



797. VULSICULUS, Jordan & Evermann. 



Vulsiculus, JORDAN & EVERMANN, Check-List Fishes, 489, 1896 (imberbe). 



This genus differs from Peristedion chiefly in the reduction of the barbels 

 on the lower jaw and the angle of the mouth. These are minute and sim- 

 ple, or nearly so, and scarcely appreciable, (vulsus, plucked; hairless.) 



2509. YULSICULUS IMBEEBIS (Poey). 



Body somewhat slender, its greatest height 4 times in distance between 

 tip of snout and base of caudal. Length of head without prolongations 

 2 in total length ; with prolongations, 2. Crown of head flat ; interor- 

 bital space concave, with a depressed groove in its middle, branching pos- 

 teriorly along the base of the supraorbital crests, its width somewhat 

 greater than the horizontal diameter of orbit. *No protuberances on fore- 

 head or on the snout above, and no ridges or spines beneath eye. Length 

 of snout, including the preorbital extension, equal to length of head; 

 preorbital extension about f of length of snout. Preorbital processes 

 flat, unarmed, and somewhat divergent ; a ridge arising at base of pre- 

 orbital process and extending to angle of preoperculum, where it termi- 

 nates in a blunt spine; a low ridge on operculum, ending in a rather 

 inconspicuous spine; another above and close to it, pointing upward. 

 Length of opercular ridge of spines nearly equal to horizontal diameter 

 of eye. Jaws feeble and apparently toothless; barbels on lower jaw so 

 inconspicuous as to be scarcely visible; maxillary extending almost to 

 vertical through anterior margin of eye ; diameter of eye 4 times in length 



