382 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Head 4.5, 5.0; depth (just in front of ventral) 6.75; 8.6; D. VIII, 14, 

 VIII, 15; A. I, 15; I, 14; P. 19, 18. 



Body very elongate, tapering posteriorly, compressed; head com- 

 pressed, rather flat above; snout broad, 4.1, 4.5 in head; eye very 

 small, a mere dot; interorbital (space) broad, 5.8, 4.0 in head; mouth 

 moderately large, strongly oblique, the tip of lower jaw being fully 

 as high as eye; maxillary reaching under eye, 2.6, 2.4 in head; teeth 

 in each jaw in two series, those of outer series movable, widely spaced, 

 compressed, much the largest, and those of lower jaw notably larger 

 than the ones in upper jaw; gill membranes attached to isthmus; 

 lateral line not evident; scales becoming smaller, farther apart, and 

 more deeply embedded forward, not extending on head; dorsal con- 

 tinuous, no notch between spinous and soft part, distance from its 

 origin to tip of snout 3.1, 3.4, in length; caudal attached to dorsal and 

 anal, long and pointed, apparently increasing proportionately with 

 age, 4.4, 2.9 in length; anal beginning at vertical from first articulated 

 ray of dorsal; ventral disk on a thick base below base of pectoral, 1.6, 

 1.33 in head; pectoral broad, reaching tip of ventral disk in the smaller 

 specimen, but falling short of this point in the larger one, 1.4, 1.5 in 

 head. 



Color grayish; upper surface of head and back with brownish dots. 



The description is based on two small specimens. One 38 mm. (31 

 mm. to base of caudal) long, dredged in Sechura Bay by the Mission, 

 and the other, 81 mm. (60 mm. to base of caudal) long, was secured 

 in Paita Bay by E. E. Coker. These specimens in general agree 

 fairly well with Steindachner's description, which was based on larger 

 material, specimens 90 to 420 mm. long being mentioned. The minor 

 differences in proportions, and the more prominent differences in 

 color (for Steindachner's specimens had violet and brownish cross 

 bands) may be ascribed to the differences in size and age. 



The small specimens from Peru were compared with two {G. brous- 

 sonetii) from Pard, Brazil, which unfortunately arfe too large for 

 satisfactory comparison, the latter being 125 and 130 mm. long to 

 base of caudal. The mouth obviously is more oblique in the Peruvian 

 examples, the tip of the lower jaw being on the same level as the eye, 

 whereas it is well below the eye in the Brazilian specimens. Further- 

 more, the maxillary reaches under the eye in Peruvian examples and 

 beyond the posterior margin of eye in the Brazilian ones. Also, the 

 teeth of the outer series in the lower jaw are notably larger than in 

 the upper one in the Peruvian specimens, whereas those of the upper 

 jaw are larger in the Brazilian ones. It was noticed, also, that even 

 though the Peruvian examples are smaller, the interorbital space is 

 broader and flatter, being contained 4.0 and 5.8 times in the head 

 and 10 times in the Brazilian specimens. Some of these differences 



