﻿410 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



■ous, retrorse, close-set, sharp teeth. Jaws bony, their lateral surfaces 

 with retrorse roughnesses. Head naked, covered with skin. 



Gill-openings rather large, oblique, running downward and forward, 

 separated by a rather narrow isthmus. Pectorals well developed, half 

 longer than eye. Xo ventrals. Vent under middle of the length of the 

 pectorals (when depressed); the anal fin beginning close behind it and 

 extending to the tail; its rays soft and rather slender; the membrane 

 delicate; its height greatest near the middle and anteriorly, where it is 

 somewhat less than height of body, becoming obsolete on the long cau- 

 4lal filament. Dorsal similar to anal, but lower, beginning close behind 

 the occiput and running to the tail. 



Table of measurements. 



Extreme length 



Body: 



(greatest depth . . . 



Depth at neck ... 

 Head: 



Greatest length. . 



(ireatest depth... 



Length of .snout 



Diameter of orbit 

 Anal : 



(ireate.st height. . 

 Pectoral : 



Length 



The specimen which is the type of the present description was taken 

 in May, 1880, in the harbor of Port Gamble, and was placed by its cap- 

 tor in the museum of the University of Washington Territory, at Seattle. 

 The president of the university. Prof. A. J. Anderson, presented it to 

 the United States National Museum. Its movements in the water are 

 said to be extremely active. 



Fishes of this type offer comparatively few specific characters, and we 

 are able to separate this species from Nemichthys scolopaceus Rich, of the 

 Atlantic by differences in proportion oulj'. According to the detailed 

 description and figure of the latter species given by Lowe and Brandt 

 {Leptorhynchm or BeJonopsis leuchtenhergij Mem. Acad. St. P^tersb. Sav. 

 Itltrang., 1854, vii, 171-174), Xemichthus avocetta is distinguished by the 

 much slenderer head, longer beak, and higher anal fin, the greatest 

 height of the latter being nearly equal to the length of the pectoral 

 and more than the depth of the head. So far as known to us, this is 

 the first species of the genus thus far taken in the Pacific. A recent 

 newspaper account of the capture of a sea-serpent at Victoria, British 

 Columbia, i)erhaps refers to a second example of tlie same species. 



Seattle, Wash., June 10, 1880. 



