216S BiiUctin //, United States National Museum. 



Prionottis strigatus, Cuviee &. Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 86, 1829; Stoker 

 Report Fish. Mass., 12, 1839; Ayhes, Boat. Journ. Nat. Hist., iv, 1842, 258; Jor- 

 dan & Gilbert, Syuop8i.s, 974, 1883, note; Jordan, Cat.Pish.N. Ani..ll5, 1885; Jordan 

 & Hughes, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, 335. 



Prionotns evolans, Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst., xi, 12, 1879; Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. 1880, 84; Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals, 255, pi. 71, 1884, and of writers ; 

 not Trigla evolans, LiNN.«;ns. 



2496. PKIOXOTUS EVOLANS (Linuajus). 



(Southern Striped Gurnard.) 



Head 2f; depth 4f. D. X-12; A. 11; lateral line with 53 pores; soft 

 dorsal high, longest ray equaling longest spine, 2^ in head; caudal 3^ in 

 length. Body and head stouter than \u Prionotus strigatm ; edgeofpre- 

 orbital granular-serrate, without distinct spine, the serrie about 12 in 

 number on each side; mouth moderate; preopercular spine with a smaller 

 one at its base; scales larger than in rrionotits strigatiis, 8 -\-l-\- 21 in a 

 vertical line from last dorsal spine to vent; interorbital space more deeply 

 concave, its width in adult not quite length of eye; first dorsal spine 

 nearly smooth ; second spine 3 in head ; pectorals a little more than | of 

 the body. Color in life, olive brown a<bove, becoming light olive on 

 sides, white below; back with 3 brown cross bars, the first under spinous 

 dorsal, the second under first third of second dorsal, the third under its 

 end, all of these bars extending downward and forward to lateral line, 

 the posterior forming a brown blotch on base of last dorsal rays; back 

 and sides with numerous small white spots, irregular in shape and size; 

 these often wanting ; a lateral line running in a naiTow brown streak; 

 distinct broad reddish-brown streak from humeral spine backward to 

 opposite end of anal; traces of a narrow streak above this; branchios- 

 tegal membrane yellowish above; a dark-brown streak from angle of 

 mouth to base of preopercular spine; oi:)ercle dusky brown without, deep 

 reddish brown within; caudal with a light-brown bar at base, then a 

 broad translucent bar, the terminal f orange yellow, narrowly margined 

 behind with white; spinous dorsal dusky, with a diffuse black blotch 

 between fourth and sixth rays above; soft dorsal translucent brownisli, 

 without streaks of any kind; anal wine color, translucent at base and 

 tip; vcntrals light reddish ; pectorals glaucous green within, the lower rays 

 reddish, the upper white; the outer side dark greenish brown, unbarred, 

 with a very narrow blue margin behind. This form is in some respects 

 intermediate between rrionotus strigatus and P. tribulus. The color is 

 in most particulars like that of P. tribulus, but the white spots on back 

 and sides are much less numerous, or wholly wanting, and the brown bar 

 backward from humeral spine is present, as in P. strigatus, and the dorsal 

 fin is not barred ; the gill rakers are, as in P. strigatus, slender and fine, 18 

 to 20 developed on lower limb ; the spines on the head are not strong as in 

 P. tribulus, that above orbit behind not conspicuously raised above surface 

 of head. In 2 specimens from Beaufort, North Carolina, the pectorals 

 are much lengthened, reaching nearly to base of caudal, but this seems 

 to 1)0 here, as in P. tribulus, a very variable feature, as specimens from 



