FAMILY GOBID.E — ZOARCES. 157 



the dorsal fin 95.16.16, and the anal 115. The pectorals broad and rounded, digitated on 

 the margin, and composed of twenty rays ; it reaches to the seventeenth ray of tlic dorsal. 

 \ entrals feeble, with four delicate spines in each, enveloped in a tliick membrane; these 

 spines are 0'6 long. The vent is opposite the twenty-si.xth dorsal ray, and the meatus for 

 the urine, communicating with a bladder which is 1 "3 long, is placed 0"4 behind the vent. 



Color, of the head, dark brown, mixed w'ith green, with lighter hues on the-cheeks. Irides 

 yellow. Chin and inside of the mouth ilesh-colored. Sides of the body and tail pale ohve or 

 salmon-color. Abdomen faintly rosaceous. The dorsal fin dark green throughout its whole 

 length, lighter along its base, and with a faint yellow border on its margin. Nearly one-half 

 of the anal fin, from its commencement, is of a dark green color ; the margin tipped with 

 greenish yellow, wdiich, about the middle, becomes the universal color of the fin. Pectorals 

 light olive-green, becoming darker at the base. 



■'o 



Length, 20-0. Greatest depth, 2-0. 



Fin rays, D. 95.16.16= 127; P. 20; V. 4; A. 115; C. 20. 



Except in color, I can find scarcely any diflerences between this and the preceding. It w-as 

 first described by Dr. Mitchill, wlio inadvertently named it ciliutus. If I have enumerated 

 Bjight the soft dorsal rays, a good specific character might be drawn from their number. It 

 is invariably smaller than the other species, and is supposed by some ichthyologists to be the 

 young. A specimen which is supposed to be the young of the Thick-lipped Eel-pout, and 

 which resembles the one now described in its general colors, is noticed by Dr. Storer as 

 having all its fins transparent. 



Its habits, and the time of its appearance, are the same as in the preceding species. 



