﻿56 HOLBKOOK, FISHES OF FLORIDA, GEORGIA, &c. 



placed along the spine, the other large, triangular, with its base lunate, and partly beneath the air 

 bladder, though the greater portion is behind it. There is no urinary bladder. The air bladder is very 

 large, sub-cordiform, though it is rounded behind, and not very deeply notched before. Its outer wall 

 is thick, firm, shining, silvery; its cavity is not entire, but is paitially divided. 



Color. See Specific Characters. 



Dimensions. The distance between the angle of the opercle and the tip of the tail 

 is equal to three heads and one eighth ; the greatest elevation without the dorsal fin 

 is equal to three fourths of a head ; total length nine inches. 



Geographical Distribution. Altamaha, Georgia. The original specimen is in the 

 collection of Prof. Agassiz, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



Sub-family ETHEOSTOMATA, Agassiz* 



Characters. — Head small, but in some elongated, in others rounded or truncated; 

 mouth variable in size ; teeth very minute ; only one suborbital bone, the anterior ; 

 no pseudobranchise ; no air bladder ; scales proportionally large. 



Remarks. — This is a sub-family of Cottoids and includes only small or medium- 

 sized fishes, which are somewhat related to the Gobidas. It embraces, as it now 

 stands, four genera, Etheostoma, Rafinesque ; Pileoma and Boleosoma, De Kay ; and 

 Paecilostoma, Agassiz. 



BOLEOSOMA, De Kay. 



Characters. — Head short, compressed, round in section of a circle: mouth small, 

 horizontal, slightly protractile ; opercular apparatus covered with scales ; opercle with 

 a small spine ; branchial rays six. 



Remarks. — Although De Kay placed this genus among the Percidge, yet he was 

 aware that it did not properly belong to that family. As he says, it "contains no 

 genus combining the characters of two dorsal fins and six branchial rays ;"f and he 

 further observes that Boleosoma approaches in the form of its head, etc., to Etheos- 

 toma. 



Boleosoma, Barratti. 



Specific Characters. — Head, neck and body compressed ; head with greenish tints 

 at the opercle ; body above pale brown ; belly white ; a longitudinal row of subround 

 dusky spots on the sides ; second dorsal and anal fins with dusky points arranged in 

 lines. 



D. 10-11. P. 12. V. 1-5. A. 10. C 14. 



* Lake Superior, etc.. p. 298. t Nat. Hist. N. V. — Part [V.. p. 21. 



