21 



GENUS SEBASTODES. 589 



problem of genetic relationship in this interesting group. 

 I include below a diagnosis of the genus, with an an- 

 alysis of the North American species. 



SEBASTODES* Gill. 

 Rock-Fish; "Rock-Cod." 



{Sebastosomus, Sebastomus, Sebastichthys Gill; Aculomentum, Primo- 



spina, Pleropodus, Auctospina Eiuieninann and Beeson.) 

 (Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 165, 1861: type Sebasles paucispi n is 

 Ayres; Jordan and Gilbert, Synopsis of Fishes of North Amer- 

 ica, 652, 1883.) 

 Body and head somewhat compressed; head large, 2| to 

 3% in length of body! ; depth 2^ to 3^ in length of 

 body; mouth moderate or large, with the jaws equal or 

 the lower more or less projecting; the maxillary reaching 

 middle of eye or beyond, sometimes beyond posterior 

 edge of orbit, its length from 1^ to 3 in length of head; 

 teeth in villiform bands on jaws, vomer and palatines. 

 Head more or less evenly scaled, without dermal flaps; 

 interorbital space convex or concave, widening markedly 

 with age; cranial ridgest more or less developed, one or 

 more of the following pairs always present, usually end- 

 ing in spines: preocular, supraocular, postocular, tym- 



* A very doubtful species, which may be the young of Sebastes marinus, 

 with an abnormal number of spines, is accredited to the Atlantic Coast, 

 viz.: S.? fasciatus (Storer). " Body elongated, not convex in front of dorsal 

 fin as in Sebastes norvegicus; four distinct dark brown transverse bands 

 upon the sides, the broadest at the posterior portion of the body." D. 

 XIII-14; A. Ill, 7. Provincetown, Mass. (Storer). (Sebastes fasciatus 

 Storer, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., v, 31, 1854.) 



An equally doubtful fossil species is referred to this genus, viz.: Sebas- 

 todes (?) rosce Eigenmann. It is known only from a fragment, the hori- 

 zontal limb of a preopercle, which was found at Port Harford, Cal., among 

 various tertiary fossils, thirty feet above the sea; but the finder himself 

 thinks it may have been left there by the Indians. (Sebastodes (?) rosce 

 Eigenmann, Zoe, i, 16, 1890.) 



tLength of body is measured from tip of snout to base of caudal fin. 



|For illustrations of cranial ridges and spines, see explanation of plates. 



