THE SHORE FISHES OF PERU 



451 



knob at tip; maxillary reaching nearly or quite to vertical from pos- 

 terior margin of eye, 2.0 to 2.1 in head; teeth small, pointed, in a band 

 in each jaw, and on vomer and palatines, the band on upper jaw well 

 separated anteriorly; spines on head only moderately prominent, 

 consisting of rather small nasal and preocular spines, of a long supra- 

 ocular ridge with a low secondary inner ridge paralleling it, postocular 

 spine small, a long low nuchal ridge, and rather small humeral and 

 suprahumeral spines; suborbital stay scarcely discernible; preorbital 

 indented, without definite spines; preopercle with 5 spines, the 2 

 below angle very short and blunt; opercle with 2 strong fiat spines 

 near posterior angle; gill rakers short, the anterior ones on each arch 

 scarcely more than spiny tubercles, those at angle about as long as 

 pupil, with a small spiny knob distally, 20 to 22 on lower and 9 or 

 10 on upper limb of first arch; lateral line following contour of back, 



Figure 87. — Sebastodes chamaco (Evermann and Radcliffe). From the type, 245 mm. 

 long, Mollendo, Peru (U.S.N.M. No. 77621). (After Evermann and Radcliffe, 1917.) 



with about 38 to 40 pores; scales rather small, strongly ctenoid and 

 striated, with small accessory scales, these most numerous anteriorly 

 above lateral line, apparently becoming more numerous with age, 

 reduced scales extending forward on interorbital, preorbital, and 

 somewhat on maxillary, none on snout or lower surface of head, 

 very small scales along base of dorsal, extending on soft part, and 

 also on caudal, anal, and pectoral, about 9 or 10 series between lateral 

 line and first dorsal spine, the series anteriorly irregular and rather 

 difficult to enumerate, 11 to 13 vertical series on peduncle behind 

 base of dorsal; dorsal fin deeply notched, but not quite separate, the 

 fourth or fifth spine generally longest 2.5 to 2.8 in head, next to last 

 spine notably shorter than the one attached to soft ray; soft part of 

 dorsal with convex margin, the longest rays about as high as the 

 longest spines; caudal when spread wide, with nearly straight margin; 

 anal small, the spines strong, the second notably longer than the 



