286 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
This handsome and singular fish attains a length of 12 inches. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean, 
on both coasts, and is abundant on the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts It has been recorded from 
Tortugas, Pensacola, St. Augustine, Cuba, and Jamaica; not seen by us in Porto Rico, but recorded from 
there by Professor Poey and Dr. Stahl. 
Pirabebe Marcgrave, Hist. Brasil., IV, 162, 1648, Brazil. 
Milvus cirratus Sloane, Hist. Jamaica, II, 288, Jamaica. 
Trigla digilis vicenis palmatis Artedi, Genera, 44, 1738, Mediterranean, etc. 
Ilirundo Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, II, tab. 8, Bahamas. 
Trigla volitans Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. X, t, 302, 1758; after Artedi: “ Mari Mediterraneo, Oceano, Pelago inter tropieos, 
in Asia ad Cap. b. Spei. Saepi agitata evolans ex aqua.” 
Trigla tentabunda Walbaum, Artedi, Piscium, III, 362, 1792; after Cataphractus Klein, Missus, which is after Catesby, 
Fishes of Carolina, IV, 44, taf. 14, f. 1. 
Trigla fasciata Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 16, tab. 3, i. 1, 1801; after Corystion Klein, Missus, IV, 45, taf. 14, f. 2, 
locality not stated. 
Dadyloplerus pirapeda Lac6p0de, Hist. Nat. Poiss., Ill, 326, 1802, Mediterranean and almost all warm seas. 
Polynemus sexradiatus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., I, 1815, pi. 4, f. 10, New York. 
Dadyloplerus volitans, Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 323, 1881; Stahl, 1. c., 78 and 164, 1883. 
Cephalacanlhus volitans, Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 2183, 1898. 
Family LXV1. GOBIIDtE. The Gobies. 
Body oblong or elongate, naked or covered with ctenoid or cycloid scales. Dentition various, 
the teeth generally small; premaxillaries protractile; suborbital without bony stay. Skin of head 
continuous with covering of eyes. Opercle unarmed; preopercle unarmed or with a short spine; 
pseudobranchise present. Gills 4, a slit behind fourth; gill-membranes united to isthmus, gill-openings 
thus restricted to sides. No lateral line. Dorsal fins separate or connected, spinous dorsal least 
developed, of 2 to 8 flexible spines, rarely wanting; anal usually with a single weak spine, similar to 
soft dorsal; ventral fins close together, separate or fully united, each composed of a short spine and 5 
(rarely 4) soft rays, inner rays longest; ventral fins, when united, form a sucking disk', a cross-fold of 
skin at their base completing the cup; caudal fin convex; anal papilla prominent. No pyloric caeca; 
usually no air-bladder. 
Carnivorous fishes, mostly of small size, living on the bottoms near the shores in warm regions. 
Some inhabit fresh waters, and others live indiscriminately in either fresh or salt water. Many of 
them bury in the mud of estuaries. Few of them are large enough to be of much value as food. The 
family embraces about 80 genera and nearly 600 species. The species are for the most part easily 
recognized, but their arrangement in genera is extremely difficult. Until the many Asiatic forms are 
critically studied, any definition of the American genera must be tentative only. 
a. Ventral fins separate; body scaly. 
OXYMETOPONTINAt : 
b. Ventral rays, I, 4. 
e. Forehead bluntly rounded, without sharp keel; tongue very slender, sharp; body elongate, compressed, covered 
with very small scales; head short, compressed, rather broad above, mouth oblique, lower jaw projecting; 
teeth in few series, some of them canine-like; isthmus narrow. Dorsals separate, the first of six slender spines; 
soft dorsal and anal elongate; caudal lanceolate Ioglossus 
Eleotridin.®: 
bb. Ventral rays I, 5. 
d. Vomer with a broad patch of villiform teeth; gill-openings extending forward to below posterior angle of mouth, 
isthmus thus very narrow; skull above with conspicuous elevated ridges, one of these bounding orbit above, 
orbital ridges connected posteriorly above by a strong cross ridge Phii.ypnus, 133 
dd. Vomer without teeth; isthmus broad; gill-openings scarcely extending forward below to posterior angle of pre- 
opercle; skull without crests. 
e. Body scaly, both anteriorly and posteriorly. 
/. Lower pharyngeal teeth stiff and blunt; bones with an outer series of broad flexible lamelliform appendages, which 
are rudimentary gill-filaments; body short and elevated Dormitator, 134 
ff. Lower pharyngeals normal, subtriangular, teeth stiff, villiform, no lamelliform appendages; scales of moderate or 
small size; body oblong or elongate. 
g. Body moderately robust, depth 4 to 5.5 times in length to base of caudal; scales ctenoid; cranium without distinct 
median keel; a small supraoceipital crest. 
h. Post-temporal bones little divergent, not inserted close together, distance between their insertions greater than 
moderate interorbital space, or 3.8 in length of head; top of skull little gibbous; lower pharyngeals narrower 
than in Eleotris; preopercle without spine, scales very small, about 110 in a longitudinal series. Vertebrae 
11 + 13; teeth moderate, outer series on lower jaw enlarged Guavina, 135 
