PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 601 



tlie former frequently absent. Caudal translucent, watli irregular cross- 

 series of round brownish-red spots, the sjiace between them often with 

 bluish- white spots ; the fin margined above with brownish red; lower 

 lobe whitish, unspotted. Anal white, with a median sulphur-yellow 

 streak, and a terminal dark bar ; ventrals whitish, with dusky areas^ 

 often uniform blackish; pectorals translucent; peritoneum silvery. 



Head 2| to 2f in length ; depth 3^ to 3|. D. X, 11 ; A. Ill, 7 : P. 17 ; 

 C. 18. Scales 5-55-15. Length 9^^ inches. 



Maxillary reaching posterior margin of pupil, 2;^ in head ; maiulibular 

 band of teeth becoming a single series laterally ; a few inner teeth in 

 the front of each jaw enlarged ; lower jaw with the inner series later- 

 ally, and the outer series anteriorly of enlarged conical teeth, the lateral 

 teeth but little larger than those in front; outer series of upper jaw much 

 enlarged, becoming smaller laterally, those in front larger than any in 

 lower jaw ; ijatch on vomer crescent-shaped; on palatines long and nar- 

 row. Head naked forwards from occiput, including suborbital ringv 

 snout, preorbital, top of head, maxillary and lower jaw ; scales on cheeks 

 small, in 9 to 11 very regular oblique series ; scales on opercles as large 

 as those on body, in 8 or 9 oblique series, those on the Hap again 

 smaller ; least interorbital width about four-sevenths diameter of eye^ 

 which is 4f in head; serrie on and below preopercular angle slightly 

 enlarged and more distant than those above ; subopercle and interoper- 

 cle finely, evenly serrate. Gill-rakers one-half eye, three above angle, 

 ten below. 



First two dorsal spines short, the third and fourth nearly equal, the 

 fourth one-half or nearly one-half head ; the last spines are then much 

 shortened, forming a notch much as in species of " Paralabraxf the last 

 spine 3| in head, two-thirds the ray following; membrane deeply in- 

 cised between the spines, the upper angles produced beyond the spines 

 in long, narrow filaments, very variable in length, usually less than 

 diameter of orbit ; the spines themselves are acute, and not at all fila- 

 mentous as figured by Holbrook (Ichth. S. C. pi. Vll, fig. 1) ; the struct- 

 ure of the dorsal thus does not differ from that of *S\ atrarius, which has 

 also a trifurcate tail ; this latter character does not however seem suflS- 

 cient to warrant the retention of the genus Centropristis. 



Caudal with the upper and middle rays much produced and nearly 

 equal, the lower lobe but little lengthened ; median rays nearly as long- 

 as head (seven-eighths to eleven-twelfths), the lower rays about two- 

 thirds head. A young specimen, 5 inches long, has caudal nearly evenly 

 convex behind, with the upper rays only slightly projecting. 



Anal spines short, graduated, the second the strongest, the third 

 slightly longer, about one-fourth head; longest rays nearly one-half 

 head. 



Middle ventral rays longest, not nearly reaching vent, four-sevenths 

 head ; pectoral sub-truncate, reaching vent, If in head. 



Scales very strongly ctenoid, running well up on caudal fin, and in 



