660 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



pale, with a faint yellow blotch at base and a dusky streak on 

 middle portions; spinous dorsal, black; chin with a yellow 

 T-shaped marking, the stem of the T bounded on each side by 

 a wing-shaped blotch of purple, which has a dark inner edge; 

 pectoral, plum color, its lower margin whitish. D. IV, 14; A. 13. 

 A prominent anal papilla. A low fold of skin extends from the 

 ventrals along the median line of the belly to the anal papilla. 

 Two slight furrows between the eyes, with two rows of papillae 

 along their inner margins. Behind these furrows are naked 

 spaces, little developed, but quite distinct. Nostrils surrounded 

 by a row of papillae. 



The same stargazer was caught in Gravesend bay Oct. 24, 1894. 

 It lived about a month in captivity and then was killed by the 

 low temperature of the water. 



This stargazer inhabits the Atlantic coast of the United States 

 from Long Island to Virginia, but is nowhere plentiful. It has 

 been recorded from Gravesend bay, N. Y., Tompkins ville N. Y., 

 Somers Point N. J., Cape May N. J. and Norfolk Va. The 

 epecies attains to the length of 12 inches. The changes through 

 which the fish passes from youth to adult age are rather 

 remarkable. 



Family baxrj^choididae 



Toadfishes ^ 



Genus opsanus Rafinesque 

 Body comparatively short and robust, scaleless; head large, 

 depressed; jaws, vomer, and palatines each with a single series 

 of strong blunt teeth; mandible with an additional external 

 series at symphysis ; teeth of upper jaw small; dentary bones 

 forming an acute angle at symphysis; lips fleshy; upper angle 

 of opercle with two diverging spines, more or less concealed in 

 the skin; no poison glands; spinous dorsal of three stout, short 

 spines, the second the longest; axil of pectoral with a large 

 foramen; lateral line obscure, its pores not conspicuous; young 

 with a series of small, tufted cirri on back and sides; branchi- 

 ostegals six; vertebrae 12+22. Shore fishes, mostly of tem- 

 perate regions; voracious creatures, living on the bottoms, feed- 

 ijig on mollusks and Crustacea, and having great strength of 

 jaw. 



