Jordayi and Evennann. — Fishes of North America. 1435 



length ; ventrals long, 1* in length of head, reaching beyond tips of pec- 

 torals, but not quite to vent; pectorals rather short, 1? in head. Color 

 bluish gray above and on sides, silvery below ; a dark, ill-defined bluish- 

 gray blotch on upper anterior angle of opercle; mouth yellow within, 

 blackish toward tip of lower jaw; spinous dorsal translucent, with dark 

 punctulations and a narrow black margin, or sometimes largely blackisli ; 

 soft dorsal dusky yellow; caudal and anterior 3 rays of anal brighter yel- 

 low; caudal and membrane between spine and first soft ray of anal with 

 black punctulations; posterior anal rays white; ventrals immaculate; 

 pectorals with upper half of axil and membrane of upper rays internally 

 brownish, the upper rays with a slight yellowish tint externally. Length 

 a foot. Panama; rather common. Of all the American Scia-noids this 

 species has the largest anal spine in proportion to the size of the body. 

 (cnsis, sword; fero, I bear.) 



Scicena emifera, Jobdan &. Gilbert, Bull. U. S. Fish Coiiiin.1881, ;ii:!, Panama; Punta 



Arenas. (Coll. C. U. Gilbert.) 

 Oorvinafulgens, Vaillant, Miss. Sci. au Mexique, 164. 1883, Pacific Coast of Mexico. 

 Bairdiella enslfcra, Jordan & Eigenmann, I. c, 387, 1889. 



1816. BAIRDIELLA ICISTIA (Jordan & Gilbert). 



(COBBINETA.) 



Head 31 to 3A; depth 3^ to 3^. D. X-I, '28; A. II, 8; scales 8-51-10. 

 Body elongate, compressed, the back a little elevated; snout very short, 

 compressed, and rather blunt, 4 in head; mouth moderately wide, oblique; 

 lower jaw somewhat included; maxillary reaching vertical from posterior 

 margin of pupil, 2;^ in head; upper jaw with a narrow band of villiform 

 teeth and an external series of somewhat larger teeth; lower jaw with 

 1 or 2 series of teeth smaller than the enlarged teeth of upper jaw and 

 more close-set; in front this series broadens into a narrow band. Chin 

 with 4 pores; premaxillaries on the level of lower part of pupil, project- 

 ing beyond snout. Interorbital region slightly depressed. Gill rakers 

 long and strong, about 6 + 17 in number. Preopercle with its lower edge 

 smooth, the posterior edge armed with distinct spines, the 3 spines nearest 

 the angle much the longest, the lowest directed vertically downward and 

 somewhat forward. Eye large, its diameter slightly less than length of 

 snout or than iterorbital width, 4f in length of head. Scales rather 

 small; series of small scales on membrane of dorsal and anal; lateral line 

 little arched, becoming straight opposite interval between vent and anal. 

 Spinous dorsal high, the spines all very slender, weak, and fiexible, more 

 slender than in other species of this subgenus, the third and fourth about 

 equal, much longer than the others, the upper margin of the fin very 

 oblique; the longest spine about n, length of head, much longer than 

 the soft rays, which are about 3^ in head; second anal spine exceed- 

 ingly strong. If in head, about ^ length of fourth dorsal spine, and 

 about as long as first soft ray of anal; middle rays of caudal .slightly 

 produced, 1^ in head, the fin subtruucate; ventrals long, their length 

 more than i the distance from their base to origin of anal; pectorals not 

 reaching vertical from tips of ventrals, about equal to them in length, li 



