1472 Bulletin ^y, United States National Musejcm. 



pupil, the immber a- | 7; lower pharyngeal bones broad. Color silvery 

 gray above, with bluish and bronze reflections, immaculate; a dark bronze 

 shade along sides on level of pectorals, extending to tail and along cheeks; 

 belly below this abruptly white; dorsals light brown, spinous dorsal black 

 at tip, the base narrowly white; caudal pale, its tip usually black ; inner 

 lining of pectoral and ventrals blackish ; gill cavity pale, littoealis, 1863. 



1855. MEXTICIRUHUS SIMUS, Jordan & Eigcnmann. 



HeadSi; dcptb 4; eye 5f in head; snout 3^. D.X-I, 22; A. I, 8; scales 

 6-52-10. Body robust; back somewhat compressed and regularly arched; 

 depth about uniform between the first dorsal spine and the first soft ray; 

 caudal peduncle rather heavy ; distance from last dorsal ray to beginning 

 of middle caudal ray slightly more tban 2 in head. Head subconical; 

 profile steep, slightly depressed over the posterior part of eyes; snout 

 abruptly blunted, turned up anteriorly, suggesting tlie form of snout in 

 the serpent Beicrodon; 5 large incisions in the upper lip, 3 large oval and 

 3 small round pores above them, as in other species of Menticirrhns; mouth 

 horizontal, inferior, the snout extending i of its length beyond the pre- 

 maxillary; maxillary extending past middle of eye, slightly more than 3 

 in head. Teeth in lower jaw villiform in rather broad bands; upper jaw 

 with a band of small teeth and an outer series of enlarged ones ; largest teeth 

 of the outer series slightly longer than the anterior nostril; preopercle with 

 fine widely placed teeth on its membranous border; gill rakers obsolete; 

 pseudobrauchia> very large; lower pharyngeal teeth villiform, those of 

 the inner series much enlarged; first dorsal beginning behind base of 

 pectoral, the first spine minute, the second spine highest, reaching to 

 third dorsal ray, li in head; posterior margin of spinous dorsal deeply 

 concave; dorsal soft rays low, subequal; caudal unequally lunate, the 

 upper lobe much the longer, 1^ in head; anal inserted under fifth dorsal 

 ray, its spine weak, 5 in head; the anterior anal rays much the longer, 

 but not extending to tip of last rays; ventrals If in pectorals; pectorals 

 1^ in head. Scales large, all strongly ctenoid, those in the lateral line 

 and those above it more or less covered with smaller ones; soft dorsal 

 with a very narrow scaly sheath ; bases of pectorals and caudal densely 

 scaly, the rest of the fins naked. Color grayish above, lighter below; 

 lower parts of sides with numerous dark points; faint lines following the 

 rows of scales above; spinous dorsal dusky, anal with dark specks; axil 

 and inner margin of pectoral dusky ; other fins plain ; lining of gill cavity 

 dusky. This species seems to ditfer from Menticirrhns vasus in the size of 

 the eye, the sizeof theteetb, and the size and shape of the snout. Dr. .Jordan 

 has examined the type of ^1/. nasus and verified the description of Giinther. 

 The large size of the eye in M. nas)(s is not due to tlie immaturity of tlie 

 typical example. Pacific coast of tropical America ; Mazatlan to Panama, 

 rather common in the surf. Here described from the type, (simus, pug- 

 nosed.) 



MenficirrhuK nasus, Jordan \- Gilbert, Bull. V. S. Fish Coniiu. 1882. 107 and 111: not 



Umhrina nasus, GOntuer. 

 Menticirrhus siinvs, Jordan i.^- P^igenmann, Keviovv Sciionida:, 427, 1889, Mazatlan. (Type, 



No. 28292. Coll. Gilbert.) 



