ERETMICIITIIYS PINNATUS. 165 



than wide, thick, convex on the crown, broad at tlio snout. Snout broad, 

 bhuit, not projecting beyond the inontli. Bones of skull thin, with largo 

 mucous cavities, prominent in the internarial region. Mouth large, upper 

 border formed by the intermaxillaries. Teeth snuill, in villiform bands on 

 intcrmaxillaries, lower jaws, vomer, and palatines. Branchiostegal rays 

 eight. Nostrils rather close together, prominent ; a groove from the anterior 

 nostril down and forward to the lip. Eye small, lateral. Gill openings 

 wide ; membranes not united, free from the isthmus. Four gills, a slit be- 

 hind the fourth ; rakers numerous, elongate, slender. Pseudobranchiae 

 small. No barbels. Opercles thin, margins flexible, spine weak. Preopercle 

 not armed. Vertical fins united ; dorsal origin close to the head ; caudal 

 narrow, elongate, pointed. Vcntrals of a single filamentary ray, close to- 

 gether, at the humeral symphysis. Pectoral bases broad ; lower half of the 

 lin longer, in the type species very long and rigid, forming a long oarlike 

 sweep, the function of which may be of sexual rather than of motor import- 

 ance. Scales thin, deciduous, covering body and head. 



Eretmichthys pinnatus sp. u. 

 Plate XXXV. figs. 1-!}. ; Plate LXXIX. fig. 2, Lat. Sijst. 



Br. r. 8; D. 125-128; A. 104-105; V. 1 ; P. 29 (14 + 15); C. 8. 



Elongate, slender, compressed, tapering ; depth two thirds of the head 

 length. Head two elevenths of the total length, high at the nape, very 

 convex across the forehead, prominent between the nostrils on the top of 

 the snout. Snout broad, blunt, deep, more than twice as long as the eye. 

 Mouth wide, little higher forward ; cleft subtending the entire eye ; maxil- 

 lary reaching a vertical one diameter of the orbit farther back, broadened 

 and indented at the end, lower angle longer, acute. Teeth small, equal, in 

 villiform bands on jaws, vomer, and palatines. Vomerine band V-shaped, 

 with apex forward and descending and with arms curving out toward the 

 palatines. A groove from the anterior nostril to the lip. Eye small, nearly 

 half as long as the snout, one third of the interorbital space, one tenth of 

 the head. Gill openings wide ; membranes not united, free from the isthmus. 

 Branchiostegal rays eight. Gills four, a short opening behind the fourth ; 

 lamina3 short; rakers slender, as long as the orbit, fifteen to seventeen in 

 number, only one or two of which are on the upper section of the arch. 

 Pseudobranchiaj small. Tongue acute, free at the end. Opercular margins 



