1956 



Bulletin //, United States N'ational Museum. 



illary broadly exposed, its tip reaching vertical from behind front of pnpil, 

 its length 2| or 2^- in head. Broad bands of teeth on jaws and vomer; 

 palatines toothless. Anterior nostril with a distinct tnbe. Eye of 

 moderate size, If in snout, 4f to 5 in head. luterorbital space and 

 occiput gently concave in adults, the total luterorbital width \\ to 1^ 

 in orbit, the bony septum narrower. Upper preopercular spine robust, 

 straight, directed backward, or backward and slightly upward; below 

 this the margin of the bone is without evident spines, but bears 1 or 2 

 slight prominences which may be rounded or acute; anterior angle of 

 the subopercle with a short spine directed forward; ox)ercle ending in 

 a short flat spine. Head with large pores, 2 pairs above front of orbit, 

 those of the posterior pair nearest together; distant from these, a single 

 median pore on the posterior portion of luterorbital space, from which 

 diverge 2 lines of pores around the back of the orbits ; spinous dorsal 

 short and low, the longest spine usually less than f the longest soft ray ; 

 the 2 fins very broadly joined; distance from base of last dorsal ray to 

 base of caudal slightly less than depth of caudal peduncle ; caudal short 

 and broadly rounded, its length If in head ; pectorals very short, usually 

 not reaching vertical from front of anal, If in head ; ventrals large, some- 

 times reaching vent but usually shorter. If in head; caudal with 9 (some- 

 times 8 or 10) forked rays; rays of other fins simple, unbranched. The 

 variation in fin rays is shown in the following table : 



Skin mostly naked, the young with a narrowly oblong patch of prickles 

 below the lateral line and under the posterior half of pectorals, these be- 

 coming gradually absorbed with age, adults being nearly or quite naked. 

 Lateral line very incomplete, the last pore under some portion of the 

 anterior half of soft dorsal in all our specimens from the lake. From the 

 last pore, a shallow open groove or trace follows the course of the obso- 

 lete poi'tion of the canal. In 4 specimens from Klamath River below the 

 falls, and in 1 collected by Mr. R. C. McGregor in Scott River, Siskiyou 

 County, California (a tributary of Klamath River), the lateral line is 

 much more nearly complete, ending under the last fifth of soft dorsal. 

 Color brownish olive, with 4 or 5 indistinct dark bars downward from 

 back, breaking up below into narrow bars which may unite to form 

 V-shaped markings, or olten into mere irregular blotches; a narrow l)ar 

 at base of tail; caudal with broad dark bars alternating with nmch nar- 

 rower light ones; dorsal and anal with somewhat narrower oblique bars; 



