4o6 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE :\1USEUM. 



times on vomer and palatines. Gill-membranes broadly united to 

 isthmus. Gill-opening reduced to a vertical slit. Gills 4, a slit 

 behind fourth. Gill-rakers small. Pseudobranchise present. 

 Pyloric coeca rudimentary. Body naked or covered with very 

 small imbedded cycloid scales. Lateral line obsolete or little 

 developed, sometimes bent downwards behind pectorals, some- 

 times sending a branch on median line backward. Dorsal and 

 anal fins very long, of soft rays only, or dorsal with a few spines 

 in its posterior portion. Vertical fins sometimes confluent around 

 tail. Pectorals small. Ventrals jugular, very small or wanting, 

 if present inserted behind eye. Vent not near head. 



Bottom fishes chiefly of the x\rctic and Antarctic seas, some 

 viviparous and descending to considerable depths. 



Genus Zoarces Cuvier. 



The Eel Pouts. 



Zoarces anguillaris (Peck). 



Eel Pout. Conger Eel Pout. 



Head 5>i ; depth 8; D. 93, XIX, 24; A. 112; snout 3 in head; 

 eye 7^ ; maxillar}^ 15/5; interorbital space 6; pectoral iji; ven- 

 tral 6% ; width of mouth 2^ ; twelfth dorsal ray 3^ ; sixth anal 

 ^3.y S/i' Body long, slender, compressed, and tapering pos- 

 teriorly. Head robust, heavy, large, becoming narrow above, and 

 upper profile convex from orbit. Snout rather long, broadly con- 

 vex. Eye elongate, high, anterior. Mouth large, mandible in- 

 ferior, and lips verv^ thick and fleshy. jMaxillary reaching a little 

 beyond orbit. Teeth in jaws biserial in front, uniserial laterally, 

 strong, conic, blunt, and those in outer series a little enlarged. 

 N'o vomerine or palatine teeth. Interorbital space narrow, 

 slightly convex. Gill-rakers 5 + 10 short asperous tubercles. 

 Scales small, circular, rather far apart and imbedded in skin. 

 Lateral line of fine pores, midway in depth of fish. Origin of 

 dorsal about opposite posterior margin of preopercle, covered 

 with thick skin and decreasing in height posteriorly. Spinous 



