107. COTTID^E BLEPSIAS. 719 



row, grooved, about half width of eye: preopercular spine with a single 

 point turned upwards; top of head with two series of cirri; none on 

 sides of head, except a few on upper part of opercle; a series of cirri 

 along anterior half of lateral line; skin without scales or prickles; pec- 

 torals reaching beyond front of anal. Head 3f ; depth 4|. D. IX-1G; 

 A. 11; V. I, 3. Northern specimens are larger in size, with paler and 

 more variegated coloration and red markings; the dorsal has one or 

 two more rays, the preopercular spine is stronger and slightly hooked 

 upwards, and the opercle has many more cirri above than in the south- 

 ern form. Pacific coast, from Monterey northward to Kodiak ; in rock- 

 pools; rather rare. 



(Girard, U. S. Pac. K. R. Surv. Fish. 1858,58: Centridermichthya globiceps Giiuther, 

 ii, 171.) 



378. BLEPSIAS Cuvier. 

 (Peropus Bennett: Histiocottus Gill.) 

 (Cuvier, Regne Animal, 1829, eel. 2d: type Trachinus cirrhosus Pallas.) 



Head and body compressed; skin hispid with stiffish villifonn 

 prickles, sometimes with definitely naked areas ; snout and chin with 

 several rather long barbels; mouth small; teeth villiform, on jaws, 

 vomer, and palatines; preopercle with two short blunt spines; gill- 

 membranes free from the isthmus; gills four, a slit behind the fourth; 

 top of head with bony ridges; suborbital stay narrow; first dorsal 

 short, elevated in front, the spines slender; second dorsal large; anal 

 similar, lower; ventrals very short, I, 3; pectorals long. Pacific coast. 

 (An old name of some fish; from /JAe/rw, to look.) 



a. Spinous dorsal emarginate ; sides with naked areas. 



1 IO.3. B. cirrSiosus (Pallas) Giinther. 



Dark olivaceous, sides of back with four to six vertically oblong black 

 blotches edged with paler, not reaching nearly to lateral line; belly and 

 naked areas on sides whitish; black bands radiating from eyes ; fins 

 dark, with large pale blotches and dark spots; caudal with light and 

 dark bars ; ventrals plain ; a small white spot on front of spiuous dor- 

 sal. Snpraocular ridges well developed; interorbital space concave, 

 with two low ridges extending backwards from nasal spines, diverging 

 towards occipital ridges; the latter large, partly interrupted; subor- 

 bital stay conspicuous; temporal ridge present; maxillary reaching to 

 beyond middle of pupil; snout with five barbels, chin with six, the 

 longest about as long as the eye, which is 3f in head; a small cirrus 



