OXCOC'KI'IIALUS I'ORKKC'l'LS. 87 



front aspects, but in function arc turned out and down to bring into view 

 their hinder surfaces. From the recess there is a groove down and forward, 

 narrowing toward the jaws, to bring the illicium in front of the mouth. 

 Mouth medium, distant from the rostrum about the width of tlic orbit, a 

 little fixrther forward than the illicial niche, obliciuely rising forward. 

 Teeth in villiform bands on jaws, vomer, palatines, and tongue. Eye lateral, 

 of medium size ; orbit little more than half as long as the snout, two thirds 

 of the width of the interorbital space. Nostrils small, clo.se together, 

 between the orbit and the forward end of the upper jaw ; anterior porelike, 

 posterior larger, oblong, oblique. Gills two and one half, no gill on the 

 first arch ; rakers represented by low rather wide prominences, of which 

 there are four on the first arch ; gill openings small, placed superiorly in 

 the axilla. Vent little backward of the middle of the entire length. 



Skin above and below thickly mailed by minute closely set stellate based 

 tubercles amongst which on the upper surface there are scattered large tuber- 

 cles the swollen trunks of which are harsh with small short spines arranged 

 more or less regularly in radiating series. A series of the large tubercles 

 passes from each side of the top of the snout along each side of the head 

 and the median vertebral line to the caudal. Besides the upper two series 

 there ai-e three others at each side of the tail. Three series appear along 

 each lateral edge of the disk, and also a number of scattered tubercles are 

 seen between the dorsal and the lateral series. The largest tubercles are a 

 pair, one of which stands in front of each eye ; there is a smaller one above 

 each orbit, and there are two between the orbit and the nape on each side. 

 All of the tubercles have short stout cusps, with the general firmness and 

 harshness of armature, the most serviceable in a rocky habitat. Lateral 

 system indistinct on the top of the disk, less so on the sides of the tail, 

 in a shallow groove below the front and the lateral edges of the disk. In 

 many cases the papilla} are entirely covered by a bridge formed by juxtaposi- 

 tion of the apices of the two protecting spines. Fdamentary fringes not 

 greatly developed on the line; larger ones are scattered below the chin and 

 along the carinte of the tail. 



Olivaceous, more or less clouded on the back, white on the lower sur- 

 face ; a darker blotch on each side near the foremost vertebrte, most often 

 lighter in the centre ; an ill defined streak of brownisli passing back above 

 the gill openings on the sides of the tail ; fins blackish toward the ends, 

 excepting the ventrals ; a light band with brown at each side from each eye 



