OX SOME NEW SPECIES OF AMERICAN AND AFRICAN FISHES. 



401 



Scales 11 — 77 — 15, none on opercle ; those of ventral line twice size of others. Radii 

 D. XV. 13: A. II. 11 ; orbit four and a half times in head to apex of opercular spine. 

 Interorbital width one-fourth length from end of muzzle to line of transverse measurement. 

 End of os maxillarc falls opposite anterior rim of orbit. Anterior to dorsal fin scaleless ; 

 abdomen entirely scaled. Basis of anal less than that of second dorsal by two rays, and 

 an interspace of latter. Length head 3.5 to basis of caudal fin. Anterior to ventral fins 

 entirely smooth. 



Total length 2 in. 10 lin., ditto from end muzzle to origin first dorsal, ten lines; to 

 origin second dorsal (well separated from the first) 1 in. 7 lin. 



Above light brown, with a slightly undulating whitish band extending from superior 

 opercular angle to superior surface of caudal peduncle ; dorsal line marked by darker 

 cpiadrate spots, with marked light interspaces. Lateral line and several rows of scales 

 above and below, marked by nine blackish longitudinal spots with smaller ones alternating. 

 A blackish band on muzzle to orbit. Head and body below straw color, except a narrow 

 black line directed backwards below the pupil and cheek on the mandibular ramus. First 

 dorsal with a median series of vertical black lines ; second dorsal with three, caudal with 

 four, and anal with a basal transverse black bar. Head spotted above. 



Habitat. Three specimens of this Pcrcid are in the Museum Academy Natural Sciences, 

 procured by myself in the Youghiogheny River, Pennsylvania, with Pleurolepis pellucidus, 

 Baird, Catonotus flabellatus, Rafincsque, and other interesting species. They occur in 

 stony parts of the river, and are a graceful and active, as well as delicately colored species 

 when living. The feature, apparently important, of a median abdominal series of spinous 

 shields in the genus Etheostoma (noticed only before Stauffer by Girard, in the E. macu- 

 latum, Alvordius maculatus, Girard), is not present in a half-grown individual of the E. 

 macrocephalum, the middle line of the abdomen being scaleless. In an E. blennioides, 

 from the Kiskiminitas, Penna., of 34 lines in length, the shields are distinct, while in 

 another of 30 lines, from Richmond, Indiana (obtained by Elijah Coffin), the same region 

 is naked. These are probably a periodical development, appearing in the breeding season, 

 like the corneous excrescences of the Cyprinidoe. They are appropriate defences to these 

 fishes which lie or move upon rocky bottoms, and are unable to suspend themselves in the 

 fluid medium for a length of time. 



CkYPTOSMILIA LUNA, Cope, GEN. ET SI'. NOV. 



C/uir. gen. Earn. Chrctodontidae, affined to Drepane. No vomerine or palatine teeth ; 

 several long sharp spines on the inferior margin of the pracoperculum. Dorsal fin with a 

 deep concavity in front of the articulated portion, spinous portion not squamous, with ten 



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