THE SHORE FISHES OF PERU 333 



line ending under posterior rays of dorsal, reappearing on middle of 

 caudal peduncle with suggestions of pores; scales strongly ctenoid, 

 absent only on a narrow space about the mouth, 1 row on pre- and 

 suborbital, 3 rows on cheek, and 3 on opercle, forming a sheath along 

 base of dorsal, and extending on bases of all the fins, exclusive of 

 ventrals, 3 complete row^s between lateral line and first dorsal spine; 

 dorsal fin continuous, the spines following the fourth or fifth, all of 

 about the same length, 2.3 to 2.75 in head; soft part of dorsal high, 

 with an acute lobe, longest ray 1.4 to 1.6 in head; caudal deeply forked, 

 both lobes sharply pointed, upper one slightly the longer, somewhat 

 exceeding length of head; anal similar to soft dorsal, its lobe scarcely 

 as high, and somewhat less acute, the second spine rather small, 2.3 

 to 2.8 in head; ventral inserted under base of lower rays of pectoral, 

 with a large axillary scale, 1.3 to 1.5 (without filament) in head; 

 pectoral rather long, about as long as head, 3.6 to 5.0 in length. 



Color of old preserved specimens dark brown above, pale brown 

 underneath. A small specimen (30 mm. long) pale olivaceous, with 

 a dark stripe on middle of side, extending from tip of pectoral to base 

 of caudal. The "color in life" has been described by Evermann and 

 Radcliffe (see reference above), presumably from R. E. Coker's field 

 notes, as follows: "Olivaceous above; below bluish silvery, and very 

 obscurely striped; a pale spot (gold when first taken) on back at pos- 

 terior limit of dorsal, the spots of the two sides confluent posteriorly 

 behind dorsal; a broad black stripe extending from insertion of each 

 lobe of caudal to its slender tip; just above dorsal stripe and just below 

 ventral stripe the fin is very narrowly margined wdth pink; between 

 the stripes the fin is olivaceous proximally and pink posteriorly; dorsal 

 almost black, a small part including last two to four rays olivaceous 

 proximally and reddish distally; distal half of anal light olive, pectoral 

 reddish at base, insertion black." The dark color on the fins, and 

 especially on the base of the pectoral, remains prominent in the 

 preserved specimens. 



The description is based on four specimens, 30 to 105 mm. (22 to 

 80 mm. to base of caudal) long. The smallest one was taken in a 

 surface net, in the vicinity of Cabo Blanco, by the Mission. The 

 others were collected at Lobos de Afuera by R. E. Coker. These 

 specimens were compared with others from Panama Bay and were 

 found to be rather slenderer, the pectoral fins seem to be proportion- 

 ately a little longer, and the average number of scales (in a lateral 

 series) , and gill rakers probably is a little lower. When more mate- 

 rial becomes available from Peru it probably can be shown that the 

 southern specimens are at least subspecifically distinct. 



This pretty fish, which apparently rarely reaches a length as great 

 as 150 mm., probably is not numerous in Peru. 



Range. — Baja California to northern Peru. 



