Jordan and Evcrmann.— Fishes of North America. 



1927 



2303. STEBXIAS XENOSTETHl S (Gilbert). 

 Head about 44; depth 6; eye 3^ in head; suout 3|. D. XI, 23; A. 23; 

 P 16- V I 3; lateral line 43; branchiostegals 6. Body shaped as m Trvj- 

 lops pinoeU, rather heavy at shoulders, tapering gradually backward; cau- 

 dal peduucle sleud.r, its least depth 4f in its length, which is f length 

 of head; upper profile of head descending rapidly in a strong convex 

 curve unbr<dveu to tip of suout; mouth large, maxillary reaching vertual 

 from middle of pupil, 2| in head; interorbital space very narrow, i orbit, 

 the orbital rim uot elevated, the space neither grooved nor ridged; a pair 

 of broadlv rounded occipital ridges, uot ending in spines; nasal spines 

 short aud inconspicuous, a broadly noticeable depression behind them ; pre- 

 opercle with 4 ill-defined projections, 1 between each mucous pore, but 

 without definite spines ; gill membranes as usual; pectoral rays apparently 

 all simple, the lower ones thi.kcned; prickles covering dorsal region and 

 back and sides of head, unusually coarse and few in number; the usual 

 series of enlarged prickles along either side of base of dorsals ; folds below 

 lateral line numerous, very oblique, 2 or 3 to each plate of the lateral line ; 

 on sides of abdomen anteriorly to vent, the prickly scales borderiug the 

 folds form a dense mass in which the linear arrangement is still faintly 

 visible ; breast covered with a very dense patch of similar scales, still more 

 closely crowded; lower part of cheeks, opercles, aud preorbital region 

 naked. A^ery light grayish above, with the usual 4 cross bars, those under 

 soft dorsal and on back of tail broader than usual; under parts whitish, 

 becoming bright silvery on breast and belly; a series of irregular silvery 

 white bfotches along lower margins of the dorsal cross bars; pectorals 

 dusky at base of upper and lower rays, with 2 convex dusky bars on 

 distal half; snout aud cheeks more or less dusky. This species differs 

 widely from species of TrUjlops in the investment of the breast, which is 

 without trace of folds and is covered by small, closely imbricated spinous 

 scales, uot arranged in series. In all other species of Trujlops the breast 

 is crossed by a few cutaneous folds similar to those on sides of body. In 

 S. xcnosMhiis the sides of the abdomen are covered similarly to the breast, 

 but the scales are arranged in more or less evident series, some of which 

 can be traced above into the cutaneous folds. The body is not slender, 

 the lateral folds are uot very numerous, and the scales on head and on upper 

 part of body are very coarse. Length 1* inches. Bering Sea; ouly the 

 type known. (Gilbert.) (^sVog, strange; (?r?}Qo?, breast.) 



Triglopsxcno^tethus, Gilbert, Rept. U. S. Fish Comm. 1893 (1896), 429, pi. 29, flg. 2, north of 

 Unalaska, at Albatross Station 322o,in 34 fathoms. (Type iu U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



722. PRIONISTIUS, Bean. 



Prionittius. Bean, Proc. TJ. S. IS^at. Mus. 1883, 355 (macellus) . 



This genus is allied to Triglops, differing in the following respects: The 

 much slenderer form, the absence of a series of bony tubercles along the 

 bases of the dorsal fins, the elongation of the exserted pectoral rays so 

 that the lower portion of the fin is considerably longer thau the upper, 



