FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 73 



C. laevigatus. Cuv. The smooth Chironectes. 

 Trans. Lit. et Philosoph, Soc. fig. ix. pi. iv. 



Several specimens of this fish were sent me from Holmes 

 Hole, by Dr. Yale ; all of them very small. From the largest 

 individual, I have drawn up the following description : 



Length one and a quarter inches. Body very much com- 

 pressed upon the sides, tapering from the head, where it is high- 

 est, to the tail. Color a dull white, with irregularly distributed 

 dark brown blotches, or partially formed longitudinal bands, 

 which are margined with a clear white : clear white spots 

 upon the abdomen. Mouth vertical, very large. Eyes mode- 

 rate in size. Jaws with numerous very minute teeth. A dark- , 

 colored flexible ray in front of, and between the eyes, with a 

 slight filament suspended from its extremity ; back of this, a 

 larger, stouter ray, with a membrane attached posteriorly ; this 

 ray also supports a filament. Yery slight cutaneous appen- 

 dages beneath the lower jaw. 



The Dorsal nearly half an inch long, variegated by the con- 

 tinuation upon it of the black blotches upon the body. 



The Pectorals stout, about one fourth of an inch long, color 

 of the dorsal. 



The Ventrals in front of the pectorals, colored like the other 

 fins. 



The Anal straight at the extremity. 



The fin rays are as follows : D. 11 ; P. 8 ; Y. 4; A. 6 ; C. 6. 



Batrachus. Bloch. 



Generic characters. The head horizontally flattened, broader 

 than the body ; the mouth well cleft ; operculum^ and suboper- 

 culum spinous ; six branchial rays ; the ventrals narrow, in- 

 serted under the throat, and formed of but three rays, the first 

 of which is elongated and widened ; pectorals supported by a 

 small arm,, the result of the elongation of the carpal bones. 

 The first dorsal short, and supported by three spinous rays ; 

 10 



