MACRURUS LlOLEl'LS. 199 



Macrurus liolepis. 



Macrurus (IJommts) Jiokpis Gilb., 1890, P. U. S. l\Ius., XIII., 117. 



Br. r. 7; D. 11-12+ 126-130; A. 114-123; V. 11; P. 21-23; LI. ca. 

 190 ; Ltr. ca. 38. 



Body elongate and compressed, rapidly becoming slender behind tlie 

 chamber. Head one fifth or more of the total length, two thirds as wide as 

 high, angular in front, flattened to concave on the crown ; cheeks steep. 

 Skull prominent in the upper orbital margins, with a median and two late- 

 ral ridges in front of the interorbital space and with a pair of short diverg- 

 ent ridges, one at each side of the middle, just behind it. Snout short, three 

 fourths to four fifths as long as the eye, equal the width and the distance 

 from the mouth, ending in a median angle or short knob bristling with sharp 

 tooth-like spines. At each side of the median knob there is a shorter one, 

 on the end of each narial ridge, with similar spines. Ej-e large, one and one 

 fourth times eitlier the interorbital space or the snout, nearly one fourth as 

 long as the head. Opercular flap slightly produced above the base of the 

 pectoral, in a rounded point, to a vertical from the dorsal origin. Mouth of 

 medium size, as long as the eye and subtending about four fifths of it ; maxil- 

 lary I'eaching nearly or quite to a vertical from the hind edge of the orbit. 

 Teeth small, subconical, in villiform bands, equal in the lower jaws, larger 

 in the outer series of the upper. Barbel small, half as long as the eye ; on 

 one specimen it is bifid. Suborbital ridge prominent, continued through the 

 narial knobs to the end of the snout, extending little backward of the eye. 

 Prominent edge on the preopercle nearly straight, descending slightly back- 

 ward, lower angle rounded and reaching little farther back. Nostrils close 

 together near the eye, posterior larger, anterior bordered by a prominent 

 membrane which opens forward. Scales small, thin, without spines, with 

 fine concentric stride, seven above the lateral line and thirty-one to thirty- 

 three below it in a transverse series. Vent between the bases of the ven- 

 trals and nearer to them than to the origin of the anal. Bases of the ven- 

 trals below the lower angle of the operculum, little farther forward than 

 those of the pectorals; first ray with a filament, half as long as the head. 

 Dorsal fin narrow ; base of the first section as long as the eye ; second spine 

 twice the length of the eye, three fifths of the head, smooth or occasionally 

 with one or more spinules near the upper end, prolonged in a filament. 



