202 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Zaprora silenus Jordan. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. Ashdown H. Green, 

 President of the Natural History Society of Victoria, in 

 British Columbia, and of Mr. John Fannin, Curator of 

 the Provincial Museum of British Columbia, at Victoria, 

 I have been allowed to examine the large fish to which I 

 have given the name of Zaprora silenus. This specimen, 

 twenty-nine inches in length, was taken in the harbor of 

 Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. It represents a new 

 genus, allied to Icosteus, Icichthys, Schedophilus, Acrotus 

 and Centrolofihus, but in its combination of characters it 

 is so different from all of these that I have been obliged 

 to give it separate family rank. The definition of the 

 family Zaproridce may for the present be that of the 

 single known genus, Zaprora. 



Family ZAPRORID.^. 



Zaprora Jordan, n. g. 



Body robust, moderately compressed, the back not 

 elevated, the belly not carinate. Body covered with small 

 adherent cycloid scales, which cover the membranes of 

 all the fins except the distal third, as also the gill mem- 

 branes, lower jaw, cheeks, opercles and nuchal region. 

 No lateral line; no spinules. Head short, the nape not 

 elevated, the forehead broad and abruptly convex in pro- 

 file ; eye moderate, placed high; preopercle, parietal 

 region, and region about eye with very large open mucous 

 pores. No spines on head; edges of membrane bones of 

 head covered with thick scaly skin. Mouth moderate, 

 terminal, oblique, its cleft mainly anterior; upper jaw 

 protractile, but not movable; maxillary rather narrow, 

 simple: lower jaw very heavy, its thick tip projecting 

 beyond upper jaw. Teeth alike in both jaws, rather 

 strong, blunt, even, close-set, forming a uniform cutting 



