JLaguna 0arinc JLaftoratorp 



of ocellated spots. Otherwise the two species differ in the number 

 and size of scales, G. elegant having fewer, larger scales than G. 

 ecides; also in shape and in number of rays of the soft dorsal, in 

 shape of caudal peduncle, in size of eye and its distance from dorsal, 

 and in general shape of body. On the Southern California coast the 

 two species may be readily separated by the difference in fin rays, 

 G. elegans having a dorsal of V-XXVII to V-XXIX spines and 6-8 

 rays, and an anal of 11-22 to 11-25, while G. evides has a dorsal of 

 V-XXVIII to V-XXXI spines, and 9-10 rays, and an anal of 11-26 to 

 11-28. Farther north, however, the species overlap, except in the 

 rays of soft dorsal. In size both the average and full grown speci- 

 mens of the two species differ greatly, G. evides being much the 

 larger, averaging about 125 to 150 mm. in length, where G. elegans 

 averages about 70 to 80 mm., and reaching a length of over 200 mm. 

 while the largest specimens of G. elegans are less than 125 mm. 



Formerly these two species have been separated by the fin counts 

 alone, which resulted in many northern specimens of G. elegans being 

 included under G. evides. Such a distinction, however, will not hold. 

 I have examined all the material in the Stanford University collec- 

 tion, upon which nearly all reports on this species have been based, 

 and find that northern specimens of both species having an increased 

 number of fin rays have been called G. evides. Starks and Morris, 

 (Marine Fishes of Southern California, p. 233), state that at Mon- 

 terey Bay only one specimen of G. elegans was found among about 

 a hundred of G. evides. An examination of 225 specimens from this 

 locality, including the latter lot, shows both species present, and G. 

 eli'f/ans represented by 160 specimens, to 65 of G. evides. 



Both of these species are very common in the tide-pools about 

 Laguna Beach, and probably continue so along the coast in favorable 

 localities from San Diego to San Francisco or farther. Apparently 

 G. eli't/ans is always the more abundant of the two. This is certainly 

 true on the southern coast, and judging from the material taken at 

 Monterey it holds true in the north also. The species are commonly 

 found associated in the same pools, living among the algaB, and other 

 kinds of vegetation, where their singularly variegated markings 

 render them inconspicuous. 



rise-era : G. elegans Internally, in the size, form and shape of the 

 visceral organs, Gibbonsia elegans shows the same tendency toward 

 wide variation that appears in external characters, but not in any 

 way conformable to this. A typical specimen is shown in Figures 

 15 and 16, but from this type there are all sorts of variations in form 

 and arrangement of organs, a series of which are represented dia- 

 gramatically in Figure 17. The liver in some specimens is twice as 

 large as in others ; in some it is elongate, in others broad and short, 



