Jordan and Evcrinann. — Fishes of North America. 1413 



Subgenus ATRACTOSCION, Gill. 

 1789. CTNOSCION NOBILIS (Ayres). 



r' White Sea Bass" of California.) 



Head 3.3 ; deptli 4. I). X-I, 21 to 23; A. II, 9; scales 12-88-14, pores 70 

 to 80. Head pointed, subconical, little compressed; profile rather steep; 

 snout sharp, rather long, 3;-^ in head; maxillary extending beyond pupil, 

 anteriorly on a level with the lower margin of the pupil, 1\ in head; 

 canines small, becoming obsolete with age; lateral teeth of lower jaw not 

 much enlarged; pharyngeals long and slender, with 4 series of teeth, the 

 inner series several times larger than the rest; gill rakers short, 2 + 7; 

 scales very small, those on head little embedded and less silvery than in 

 related species; maxillary with a few embedded scales; scales on snout 

 running to its tip; caudal lunate, its middle rays less than \ length of 

 head; both anal spines evident, the second about \ length of the rays; 

 pectoral fins rather long, more than \ head; soft dorsal and anal scaleless. 

 Color bluish, little silvery; everywhere punctulate; young with 3 or 4 

 distinct dusky cross bars; axil and fins dusky; a dusky blotch at base of 

 pectoral, extending on whole inner face of the fin; scales of side of head 

 not silver}-. Coast of California, north to San Francisco, occasionally 

 straying farther; a specimen once taken near Victoria by Mr, Ashdown 

 Green. A most valuable food-fish, reaching a weight of 80 pounds or 

 more, its flesh firm and rich. The banded young {californiensis) are quite 

 different in appearance and are taken for a distinct species by fishermen 

 as they have been by Steindachner. {nohilis, noble.) 



Johinus nobilis, Ayees, Proc. Cat. Ac. Sci. 1860, 78, San Francisco. (Coll. Ayres.) 

 Otolithus californiensis, Steindachner, Ichth. I?eitr., iii, 31, 1875, San Diego, Cali- 

 fornia, and Magdalena Bay, Lower California ; young with dark bands. 

 Ci/noscion iwbiUs, Jordan Sc Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Miis. 1880, 456. 

 Atractoseion nobilis, Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 579 and 933, 1883. 

 Gestreut nobilis, Jordan & Eigenmann, I. c, 370, 1889. 



1790. CYNOSCIOX PHOXOCEPHALUS, Jordan & Gilbert. 



Head 3^; depth 4^ to 4,|; eye 7i in head. D. IX-I, 21; A. Ill, 10; scales 

 17-90-15, pores about 80. Body not very elongate, fusiform, little com- 

 pressed, the greatest thickness nearly | the greatest depth ; back scarcely 

 elevated nor compressed, the profile from the snout to the front of the dor- 

 sal nearly straight ; head conical, little compressed, iiointed in profile, taper- 

 ing with much regularity toward the tip of the projecting lower jaw; 

 length of ^landibl(^ more than i that of head; mouth large, very oblique, 

 the premaxillary in front on the level of the upper part of the orbit, the 

 broad maxillary extending to below the posterior margin of the eye, 2 in 

 head. Teeth in narrow, cardiform bands in each jaw, the bands composed 

 of about 2 series in front, growing narrow laterally, and finally forming 

 a single series; teeth subequal, with the excej^tion of about 2 pairs in the 

 front of the upper jaw. the posterior pair being developed as small 

 canines directed inward and backward; canines proportionately larger 



