180 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



liUle shorter than eye, which is 3 in head ; mouth moderate, a little ob- 

 lique, the lower jaw iucluded, the maxillary extending a little past front 

 of eye, its length about 3§ in head ; preopercle entire ; opercular spine 

 well developed ; gill-membranes very slightly connected. 



Cheeks entirely naked ; opercles well scaled ; nuchal region and breast 

 naked ; lateral line almost complete, anteriorly somewhat arched and 

 concurrent M'itli the back ; no black humeral scale ; belly scaled like the 

 sides, its scales a little smaller. 



Spinous dorsal rather low and short, the outline rounded ; soft dorsal 

 long, a little higher than spinous dorsal ; anal small, its spines very 

 slender ; caudal but little shorter than head ; pectoral about as long as 

 head, reaching somewhat beyond tips of ventrals, nearly to vent. 



Coloration in spirits precisely like that of Pax-ilichthys barratti, 

 olivaceous, mottled and tessellated with darker olive; a dark streak 

 forward from eye; dorsal and caudal with bands of dark spots j other 

 tins i>laiu. 



The single typical example was sent to the Museum from Tabo Creek, 

 a tributary of the Missouri Kiver, near Lexington, Lafayette County, 

 Missouri. 



The lateral line in this species and the preceding is so very nearly 

 complete that its deliciency is useless as a generic distinction. Both 

 species are evidently allied to the species called Boleichthi/s. This shows 

 the extremely slight value of the characters used to separate Nofhono- 

 tus from Boleiclitliys. Doubtless all these genera with short anal fin 

 and non-protractile premaxillary {FwcilichfJnj.s, Bolcichthys, N'othonotus, 

 Jslanostoma will have to be merged in Etheostoma). 



The character of the union of the gill-membranes is similarly subject 

 to intergradation among closely related species. 



S3IITHS0NIAN INSTITUTION, AugUSt 15, 1884. 



DESCRIPTION OF Scirnia sriera, A NEW SPECIES OF SCIiENA FROM 



MAZATLAN AND PANAMA. 



By DAVm !!i. JORUAN and CIIAKI.EN H. (GILBERT. 



In several papers in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion and the Proceedings of the United States National Museum we 

 have mentioned specimens of Sciwna vermicularis from Mazatlau and 

 Panama. In Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission (1881, 

 p. 315) we have given a diagnosis of this species, comparing it with 

 our Pacific Scia'na: All these references belong to a species which is not 

 the original Corvina vermicularis of Giinther, and which until now re- 

 mains unnamed. 



Sciaena sclera, sp. nov. 



ScUvna vermivnlaris, Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. U. S. Fish Couim., 1881, 310 (uot 

 Corvina I'ermicularis, Guuther). 



Head, 3n4);; depth, 3^3| (4). D. X, I, 24; A. II, 7., Scales^ (>-5Q 



