For much information and assistance in their determination, I am indebted to Dr. W. O. Ayres, and also to Dr. George Hewston, for the use of books not contained in any public library in the city.
The outline illustrations, reduced from accurate measurements, were electrotyped and presented by our industrious collaborator, Dr. Kellogg.
The colors described are in all cases those of the living fish.
Dekaya, n. g.[6]
Generic characters.—General shape elongated and fusiform, head small and short, premaxillaries slightly protractile, eye large, situated above the level of mouth, profile moderately sloping, snout broad and obtuse.
Preoperculum serrated behind, operculum with one obtuse spine; branchiostegal rays five on each side. Opercular openings connected below.
Front rows of teeth on premaxillaries small, conical, acute, and slightly recurved; those of upper jaw largest, their size decreasing from the middle towards each angle, where there are one or two large canines; those below hidden by the upper jaw. Behind this row in both jaws, a band of velvet teeth in about six irregular rows near the symphysis, but ending entirely near the middle of each ramus. Tongue and vomer toothless. Pharyngeal bones and branchial arches densely crowded with large velvet teeth.
Infraorbital bone short, curving up under posterior border of orbit, and not connected with the operculum.
Nostrils double, anterior opening smaller, lips rather thick and fleshy.
Scales small, numerous, oblong, subquadrangular, finely pectinated, covering the whole body and head as far as front of orbit, but leaving a bare space around the eye.