312 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



points; upper parts with bright bluish reflections; lower parts with 

 silvery luster; a dark temporal blotch; lower jaw black within, behind 

 the front teeth. Fins all dark brownish, the ijectoral, anal, and ventrals 

 quite black, with minute dark points; tip of spinous dorsal black. 

 Lining of opercle dusky; peritoneum silvery. 



Six specimens obtained in the Bay of Panama. All of them are 

 from 6 to 7 inches in length, and as they are evidently mature, this spe- 

 cies is probably one of the smallest of the ScioBUoid tishes. 



Its resemblance to ;S'. filrthi is quite strong, but the armature of the 

 preopercle, the form of the snout and mouth, and the color of the lower 

 fins, at once distinguish it from both ^.filrthi and ^S". oscltans. The cav- 

 ernous structure of the bones of the head reaches in this species an ex- 

 treme. 



6. Sciaena oscitans, sp. nov. (292u8, 29299, 29319, 29326. ) 



(Subgeuus SteUiferus Stark; allied to Sciwna fiirihi (Steind.) and S. oscitans J. & G. 



Body oblong, the back somewhat elevated ; head very wide and 

 heavy, almost quadrate, flat above; cheeks nearly vertical; cranium 

 above, as well as preorbital and px-eopercle, cavernous, yieldiug to the 

 touch; snout heavy, projecting a little beyond preraaxillaries, much 

 broader than long, its length 4 in head. Interorbital space very broad 

 and flat, its breadth 2f times in length of head. Greatest width of 

 head two-thirds its greatest height. Eye moderate, its diameter equal 

 to half the interorbital space. Supraorbital rim slightly elevateds 



Mouth very wide and oblicpie, the lower jaw inchided; length of gape 

 twice in length of head (2^ in S. fUrthi); premaxillaries anteriorly on 

 the level of the lower part of iiu])il; maxillary reaching well beyond 

 the i^osterior margin of the orbit. Chin with a small but distinct knob, 

 the pores around it not well marked. 



Teeth small, not forming villiform bands, in two rather irregular 

 series in each jaw, the outer teeth in upper jaw somewhat enlarged, 

 the large teeth fewer in number and larger than in S.furtJii. 



Gill-rakers numerous, very tine and slender, the longest about two- 

 thirds diameter of orbit, about 28 on anterior branch of outer gill arch. 

 Pseudobranchiie quite small. 



Preopercle with its margin evenly rounded, the upper and lower limbs 

 nearly- equal, the membranaceous margin minutely serrulate; above the 

 angle is a short, very strong spine directed backwards, and at the angle 

 is a similar one directed obliquely downward and backward; no other 

 stiff spines on the preopercle. 



First and second spines of the dorsal strong and inflexible, second 

 spine about one-third length of head; third spine longest, about half 

 as long as head, and like the succeeding spines very slender and flexi- 

 ble; eleventh and twelfth spines longer and stronger than the tenth. 

 Soft doTsal anteriorly about as high as the third spine. Anal short, its 

 second spine long and very strong, much stronger than second dorsal 

 spine and longer than the thixd, its length rather more than half the 



