124 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



ridges, some of which are bifurcate ; the ridges are separated into two portions 

 by the median line. The free margin is delicately pectinated. The scales are 

 of moderate size, there being about fifty-four in a row behind the pectoral fins. 

 Before the dorsal fin, and especially on the forehead, the nucleus is subcentral, 

 and with numerous radiating grooves sometimes advancing even to the lateral 

 margins. On the operculum they are often higher than wide, with the nu- 

 cleus subterminal to subcentral, with the posterior margin angulated and pec- 

 tiniform ; on the preoperculum they are smaller and almost square, with more 

 or less subcentral nuclei, and with the pectinations generally obsolete. 



The first dorsal fin commences some distance behind the vertical of the bases 

 of the pectorals, and has the arrangement of the rays normal in the Gobin^ 

 and Eleotrina?. The rays in length have the following relation to each 

 other; 2, 3, 1, 4. The second dorsal is oblong and commences behind the ver- 

 tical of the anus. 



The caudal fin is posteriorly rounded, and its longest rays form a fifth of the 

 length of the fish. 



The pectorals are rounded and equal in length to the interval between the 

 orbit and the margin of the operculum. The ventrals are also rounded, and 

 the third and fourth branched rays are the longest. 



The radial formula is as follows : 

 1 1 



D vi I, 8 ; A I, 1, 8 ; C 5, 6, 5, 5 ; P 2, 13 ; V I, 5. 

 1 1 



The color is dark purplish brown, lighter on the abdomen. Along the sides 

 a black band runs from behind the upper part of the pectoral to the base of 

 the caudal fin, dividing about nine vertical light bands, which project a little 

 above and below the band. At the base of the caudal, the lateral band some- 

 what enlarges, and is sometimes partly surrounded by a light margin. The 

 vertical and ventral fins are sometimes immaculate, but generally spotted 

 with white and black. The pectorals have a black spot at the upper axilla, 

 and a blackish basal band, bordered on each side by whitish. The head is 

 of the color of the back, with vertical dark bar from the eye to the angle of 

 the jaw, another from the inferior corner of the eye to the extremity of the 

 operculum, and another horizontal one from the orbit to the upper jaw. 



This species was obtained in considerable numbers by Mr. John Xantus, of 

 the United States Coast Survey, at Cape St. Lucas, Lower California. It adds 

 another proof of the similarity of the Fauna of the Gulf of California to that of 

 the West Indies. 



The specimens collected by Mr. Xantus are in the Museum of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and are numbered in the catalogue of the Ichthyological 

 collection from number 2435 to 2442. 



This species differs from its West Indian congener chiefly in its proportions, 

 the smaller vomerine band of teeth and in color. 



Bostrichthys (Dum.) Gill. 

 Synonymy. 

 Bostri/chus fkacepede, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, vol. iii. p. 141. 

 .Bos1r/cJ%s} Dum -> Zoolo ? ie Analytique, &c, p. 120, 1806. 



Ictiopogon } Raf *' Anal y se de la Nature > &c v 1815 - 

 Philypnus sp. Rich. 



Head elongated subconical in profile, oblong and depressed above. Nostrils 

 distant : the anterior elongated-tubular, and immediately behind the niaxil- 



[April, 



