278 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



simple and nearly entire, and the ventral fins perhaps inserted farther behind, 

 its second soft ray slightly produced and the membrane between it and the 

 first acutely notched. The caudal fin is truncated. The teeth are present on 

 the jaws, vomer and palatine bones as in Zaniolepis, those of the former 

 being larger in the outer row, and, as in that genus, there are six branchi- 

 ostegal rays. 



OXYLEBIUS PICTUS Gill. 



1 

 D. XV. + I. 14. A. Ill 12 -. C. 1. I. 6. 5. I. 1. P. 10 -f- 6. V. I. 5. 



1 



The color is brownish, or dark tawny yellow, with indistinct lighter spots 

 and with six undulating, vertical, dark purple bands ascending on the dorsal 

 and anal fins, as wide as the intervals between them on the back and nar- 

 rower below. The first band is under the three anterior dorsal spines and 

 descends to the scapular bone ; the second from the sixth to eighth spines, 

 ceases behind the bases of the ventral fins ; the third extends over the last 

 five spines and descends on the spinous portion of the anal ; the fourth covers 

 the dorsal between the fifth and ninth soft rays and descends on the anal 

 between and across the fourth to sixth rays ; the fifth is close before the end 

 of the vertical fins ; and the sixth partly on the end of the caudal peduncle 

 and partly on the fin. The head has an arched band from the snout to the 

 margin of the operculum, interrupted by the lower half of the eye ; beneath 

 that band and on the branchiostegal membrane are numerous rather large 

 spots. An arched band from the nape runs toward each eye below the pos- 

 terior angle. The four small tufts, one over each eye and one on each side 

 of the nape, are scarlet. The upper part of the spinous dorsal is light, and 

 the margin of the soft mostly blackish. The anal is saffron yellow, and be- 

 tween the broad bands continued on it from the body are linear ones, parallel 

 with them, the last crossing near the ends of the last four rays. The caudal 

 has two or three bands ; the pectoral four, and the ventral two. 



Subfamily HOPLOPOMATIN^I Gill. 



Ophiodon elongatus Girard. 

 Two fine but small specimens of this species are in the collection. 



Family SCORPyENOID^E (Sw.) Gill. 



Subfamily SCORP^NINiE (Sw.) Gill. 



Genus Sebastodes Gill. 



This genus is readily distinguished by the characters assigned to it in the 

 Proceedings of the Academy for 1861 ; the head above is quite unarmed. The 

 other species of California referred to the genus Sebastes belong to another one 

 distinguished by a form nearly similar to that of the true Sebastes, but with 

 a dorsal fin armed with only twelve or thirteen (XI. XII. + 1.) spines, and 

 having, as far as known, only ten abdominal and fourteen caudal vertebras. 

 With regard to the Sebastes elongatus of Ayres there is some doubt, but it 

 appears, from the only description and figure published of it, to be, if not 

 congeneric with the other Californian species, to be at least more nearly allied 

 to them than to Sebastodes. The genus comprising S. nigrocinctus Ayres, S. 

 nebulosus Ayres, S. auriculatus Girard, S. ocellatus Cuv. (= S. helvomacu- 

 latvs Ayres), S. melanops Girard and S. rosaceus Ayres may be called Sebas- 

 tichthjs.* Not having had the opportunity to examine all of the foregoing 

 species, I cannot be certain that all are valid. 



* The species of Sebastes without palatine teeih, of which the S.polylepis of Bleeker 

 and Gumher is one, may be considered as representing another generic type (Sebas- 

 topsis Gill ) 



[June^ 



