280 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Color brownish above; silvery below; opercle with an indefinite 

 dark blotch; inside lining of opercle largely black; axil of pectoral 

 dark; spinous dorsal dusky distally; fins otherwise plain. 



This species is represented by a single specimen, 295 mm. (250 mm. 

 to base of caudal) long, in the Peruvian collections studied. It was 

 taken near Tumbes by R. E. Coker. The specimen was compared 

 with others from Panama, including a paratype with which it agrees 

 well, except for the modified (enlarged) scales in the lateral line, which 

 the Panama specimens do not have to the same degree. 



Range. — Panama Bay to northern Peru. Probably rare in Peru. 



Genus ODONTOSCION Gill, 1862 



Body elongate, compressed; head rather low, more or less com- 

 pressed; snout conical; tip of lower jaw with a slight knob, but no 

 barbel; mouth fairly large, moderately oblique; teeth in jaws in 1 or 

 2 series, some of the teeth enlarged, caninelike, a pair of canines at tip 

 of lower jaw; gill rakers slender, about 14 to 17 on lower limb of 

 first arch; margin of preopercle with at least a few weak spines ^^; 

 first dorsal with 10 to 13 spines; second dorsal with about 23 to 27 

 soft rays; anal small, with 8 or 9 soft rays, the second spine not 

 greatly enlarged. 



A single, heretofore undescribed species is included in the Peruvian 

 collections now at hand. 



ODONTOSCION AUSTRALIS. new species 



Figure 59 



Head 3.0 to 3.1; depth 3.4 to 3.75; D. X-I, 25 or 26; A. II, 8; P. 



15 or 16; scales 56 to 59; vertebrae 25 (one specimen dissected). 

 Body elongate, compressed, its greatest thickness about half its 



depth; back not greatly elevated; profile gently convex at nape, 

 nearly straight over eyes; head well compressed; caudal peduncle 

 moderately slender, 2.9 to 3.1 in head; snout more or less conical, 3.4 

 to 4.2; eye 3.8 to 4.4; interorbital 4.1 to 4.8; mouth large, oblique, 

 terminal ; maxillary extending beyond vertical from posterior margin of 

 pupil, 2.0 to 2.15 in head; teeth in upper jaw in 2 series, those of the 

 outer series enlarged, caninelike, those of the inner series very small, 

 lower jaw with a single series, irregularly large or small, with a pair of 

 canines at tip; preopercle with a somewhat enlarged spine at angle 

 and smaller ones above it, and with a prominent preopercular ridge; 

 gill rakers slender, those at angle about two-thirds length of eye, 14 to 



16 on lower and 7 on upper limb of first arch; lateral line scarcely 



>' The preopercle has been described as unarmed. However, small spines are present at least at angle, 

 though fairly well covered with skin in the adult, and well exposed in the small specimens herein described 

 as a new species. 



