1818 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum, 



maxillary loaching beyond eye, its lengtli 2i in head; preorbital broad; 

 preopei'cular spines long, all directed backward, the second longest; oper- 

 cular spines weak ; 3 suprascapular spines. Scales on body large, ctenoid ; 

 accessory scales not very numerous; mandible naked. Spinous dorsal 

 high, the longest spine 2 in head, higher than the soft rays, which are 

 much elevated ; second anal spine longer aud stronger than third, 2^ in 

 head; soft part of anal high; pectorals rather short aud broad, the tips 

 barely reaching the vent, their length 3^ in body; ventrals reaching to 

 vent; caudal truncate. Bones of skull rather thin ; preocular, postocular, 

 tympanic, parietal, and coronal spines present, quite slender, sharp; pari- 

 etal spines sometimes divided; the ridges moderately thick and high; 

 parietal bones quite far apart, interorbital space narrow, 4 in base of 

 skull, its middle convex, a depression on each side between the convexity 

 and the supraocular ridge ; A-entral process of basisphenoid strongly devel- 

 oped; mesethmoid processes compressed, thin, elevated; base of skull 

 straight. In one specimen the gill rakers are 7 + 15; on the upper limb 

 2 only are long and compressed, the others are round aud thick, but 

 slightly movable; on lower limb all those enumerated are compressed; 

 \n front is a mass that might represent rudiments of one or more. Color 

 blackish brown, much mottled with light brown; toj) of head dark; a 

 dark blotch on the upper angle of the opercle; entire body flushed with 

 brownish red, this color most noticeable on front of head; a brownish red 

 streak along middle of maxillary, and a second from the preorbital down- 

 ward and backward across the cheek; another from eye to lower part of 

 opercle; fins all marked with dark and light olive and reddish, the latter 

 hue especially on the ventrals and anal; base of pectoral blackish ; north- 

 ern specimens are more blackish, and less uniform in color; old specimens 

 are often nearly uniform reddish brown; the young sometimes with 

 obscure dark bars, the caudal fin speckled. Length 18 inches. Pacific 

 coast of Amei'ica, from Cape Mendocino to Cerros Island, very abundant; 

 the only species entering bays and caught with hook and line from wharves. 

 It may be known at once by the coronal spines, these, howeA^er, often obso- 

 lete in the northern form, var. dallii. (aurivnlatits, eared.) 



Sebastes auriculatus, Gieard, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pbila. 1854, 131, 146, and U. S. Pac. R. E. 



Surv., x. Fishes, 80, 1858, Presidio, near San Francisco (Type, No. 347. Coll. Lieut. 



Trowbridge) ; Atres, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1862, 215, tig. 68. 

 Sebastes ruber, Atres, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., i, 1854, 7, San Francisco; adult. 

 Sebastes ruber, yht. parvus, Atres, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci.. I, 1854, 7, San F-ancisco; young. 

 Sebastodes avriculatus, Jordan &, Gilbert, Synopsis, 670, 1883 ; Cramer, Proc. Cal. Ac. 



Sci., series 2, v, 1895, 601, pi. 6.5, fig. 26. 



Represented northward (YancouA-er Island to Point Eeyes) by a form 

 much darker in color, and lacking one or both coronal spines in about half 

 the specimens : 



2222a. SEBASTODES AURICULATUS DALLII (Eigenmann & Beeson). 



This form is thus described: Head 3; depth 3. D. XIII, lU; A. Ill, GL 

 Dorsal spines moderate, 2 in head; lower jaw projecting. Maxillary 

 extending beyond eye, about 2^ in head. Eye equals snout, 3f in head, 



