214 



of an insufficient amount of materials. The grouping of the charac- 

 ters which he has assigned to Sehastodes, belongs only to the single 

 species paucispinis; but the " longer body" is equalled in elongatus, 

 a species of very different type ; the " protuberant lower jaw," 

 with its " symphiseal swelling," and the " form and armature of 

 the head," are common to five of our species ; the " deep emargin- 

 ation of the dorsal fin " is most strongly marked in flavidus, 

 while the border of the caudal fin changes insensibly in the succes- 

 sive species from the slight emargination of paucispinis to the 

 slight rounding of nebulosus and niyrocinctus. 



Equally vuisatisfactory is the definition of Sebasticlithys. The 

 number of spines of the dorsal fin is the same m all our species, 

 paucispinis included ; they are XIII, or if a division is preferred, 

 XII-|-I. The " palatine teeth " are found in all our species, pau- 

 cispinis included, as they are also in Norvegicus and its allies. The 

 " physiognomy " can scarcely apply as a feature for distinction, for 

 Mr. Gill has grouped in his Sehastiehthys the very extremes ; no 

 two, for instance, can be more unlike than niyrocinctus and mel- 

 anops. 



A careful investigation of all the species, with the comparison of 

 very numerous specimens of all (except ovalis') has satisfied me, 

 however, that they should be arranged in two groups, — in one of 

 which the summit of the head is strongly ridged and spinous, while 

 in the other it is almost entirely smooth. Other features, it is true, 

 accompany these, but they are of subordinate import. In place 

 now of introducing new names, it may be better to call the smooth 

 headed division Sehastodes, though it will necessarily be of different 

 limits from that proposed under the same name by Mr. Gill. For 

 the rough headed division we retain the old name Sebastes, as there 

 is no apparent vaUd reason for separating them from that group 

 of which jSebastes Nbrveyicus is the type. A difference in number 

 of one, or at most two, dorsal spines, is scarcely sufficient to consti- 

 tute a genus. 



The synonymy, therefore, of our Califomian forms, will be as 

 follows : — 



GEN. SEBASTES. 



With the characters of Sebastes as yiven by Cuvier, except that 

 the top of the head is always marked by spinous ridyes, the orbits 

 being commonly crested, so as to leave a depression between them. 



1. Sebastes nigrocinctus. Ayres. Proc. Cal. Acad., Vol. 

 II, p. 25, and p. 217, Fig. 67. 



