STONE-BASS. 
47 
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Genus POLYPRION. 
Form of the body oval and compressed. Scales small with sharp spines. The bony ridge on the outside of the 
operculum extending to the spine at the point of this bone , high and. like the spinous rays of the centred fins and 
most of the spinous rays (the anterior at least) in the dorsal and anal fins , sharply dentated or warty (during 
youth at least). Preorbited bones , preoperculum , suboperculum, interoperculum and shoulder- girdle dentated. Head 
seedy , ivith the exception of the spinous or warty ridges and osseous lines of the exterior bones, and also of the 
lips. Villiform, in older specimens cardiform teeth on the interm axillaries, the mandible , the vomer , the palatine 
bones and the tongue. Numerous (70) pyloric appendages , forming severed bunches a . Pseudobranchice well deve- 
loped. Branchiostegal membranes separate , each ivith 7 h rays. Dorsal fin continuous, with from 10 to 12 spinous 
rays c . In the anal fin 3 spinous rays , its base being about equal in length to the base of the soft-rayed part of 
the dorsal. In the caudal fin 15 d branched rays. 
Of this cosmopolitan genus, which belongs to the 
depths of the ocean, Steindachner has in recent ti- 
mes 6 described a new species from Juan Fernandez 
and the Island of St. Paul. The difference of form 
in this species is, however, of little importance, unless 
it be an indication of juvenile characters still pre- 
served. With this exception the only species we know 
is the long famous 
STONE-BASS OR WRECK-FISH (say. vrakfisken). 
POLYPRION AMERICAN U M . 
Fig. 12. 
Breadth of the interorbital space equal to or greater than the length of the gill-cover , sometimes equal to the 
least depth of the tail and from P/ 2 to 2 times the longitudinal diameter of the orbit. 
Fig. 12. Stone-bass (. Polyprion americanum ) from Sardinia. 3 / g of the natural size. Drawn from a specimen belonging to the 
Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen. 
a Day, 1. c. According to Gunther, 1. c., there are only 2 pyloric appendages, according to Moreau, 1. c., 6. 
b Sometimes 8. 
c Steindachner, 1. c. 
d 14, according to v. Duben and Koren, 1. c. 
e Ichth. Beitr., II, i: Sitzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, LXXI, i, April 1875, p. 1 (sep.). 
