N(.. 2294. FISHES FROM WEST AFRICA— FOM'LER. 287 



HEMICHROMIS FASCIATUS Peters. 



Seven examples from the Quanza River. 



LAGOCEPHALUS LAEVIGATL'S (Linnaeus). 



One from Loando, 476 mm., compared with an example of equal 

 size from Cape May, New Jersey, is indistinguishable. Also 2 

 smaller examples, 260 and 450 mm., same data. The lateral line 

 seems variable in some cases and may appear broken or several 

 times mterrupted. Also 2 young in poor preservation, included 

 previously under Sierra Leone, have 3-rooted conspicuous abdominal 

 spines. Sides of body, especially below pectoral, Math many large 

 blackish round spots, nearly large as pupil. Back blue-black, sides 

 and below bright silvery-white. 



SPHEROiDES SPENGLERi (Bloch). 



Upon comparison with a series of examples from Massachusetts, 

 Florida, the Bahamas, and St. Martins, West Indies, my Loando 

 example differs in coloration. In American material the caudal 

 always shows a dark or black basal and terminal crossband, and 

 though present in the Angola example, narrower and with the addi- 

 tion of a broad dark median bar. The black round spots on the side 

 of the head and trunk below are fewer, only about 6 distinct as 4 

 before pectoral and 2 behind, though very pale traces of others exist. 

 Several larger black blotches below eye and slightly backward do not 

 occTu- in the American examples, though conspicuous in the Loando 

 example. Evermann and Marsh ^ figure an inflated example of S. 

 spengleri which differs from a nearly inflated Bahama example before 

 me in the dark blotches being so far removed from the pectoral, as 

 in all my material the seventh blotch is behind and scarcely at all 

 below the pectoral base. The row is also continuous and not broken 

 before the caudal peduncle in my material, and the upper 3 spots 

 behind the pectoral, though present, are much higher. 



ELEOTBIS VITTATA A. Dumeril. 



Head, 2| to 3; depth, 4 to 4|; D. VI— I, 8, i; A. I, 8, i; scales 

 38 from shoulder to caudal base m.edially, and 8 more on latter; 17 

 scales transversely between soft dorsal and anal origins; 44 pre- 

 dorsal scales; snout, 4f in head; eye, 6^; maxillary, 2|; interorbital, 4. 

 Body depressed in front, compressed behind. Head width. If its 

 length. Caudal peduncle long, compressed; least depth, If its length 

 and 3i in head. Snout wide, convex; length half its width. Eye 

 well advanced: hind edge at first third in head measured from 

 mandible tip. Maxillary nearly to hind pupil edge, greatly inclined; 



1 Bull U. S. Fish Comm., vol. 20, pt. 1, 5900, p. 267, fig. 79. 



