460 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Color grayish brown above; pale below; back and sides of head and 

 body everywhere with dark punctulations, these concentrated to form 

 about nme indefinite more or less quadrate blotches along lateral line ; 

 punctulations extending on dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins, most 

 numerous on distal part of first dorsal; occiput with a rather dark 

 brown area. 



A single specimen, 62 mm. (53 mm. to base of caudal) long, was 

 taken by the Mission with a purse seme in Pisco Bay. This specimen 

 forms the basis for the foregoing description. It was compared with 

 a paratype from Valparaiso Harbor, Chile, from which it differs only 

 in some minor respects. The body in the Peruvian specimen is rather 

 more robust and the opercle is glossy and is without visible scales 

 except along its margin, whereas outlines of scales are visible over 

 the entire surface of opercle in the paratype. Furthermore, the dark 

 spots along the lateral line are more distinct, and quadrate rather 

 than elongate as in the paratype. The following proportions and 

 enumerations are based on the paratype: Head 3.4 in length; depth 

 5.8; pectoral 4.3. Eye 4.75 in head; snout 5.5; interorbital 8.0; 

 maxillary 4.0; caudal peduncle 5.8; anal base 1.5; pectoral 1.5. D. 

 X-11; A. 14; P. 17; scales 42, before first dorsal 12, between dorsal 

 fins 8, rows between lateral line and first dorsal spine 4. 



The type material from Valparaiso Harbor was taken about a 

 submerged light; the specimens from Mocha Island in a beam trawl, 

 at a depth of about 20 fathoms; and the specimen from Pisco Bay, in 

 a purse seine. So far as known, then, the fish apparently may live 

 at or near the surface, and down to a depth of about 20 fathoms. 



Range.— Tisco Bay, Peru Qat. 13°50' S.), to Mocha Island, Chile 

 (lat. 38°22' S.). 



Family BOTHIDAE:" Flounders 



Eyes and color normally on left side; mouth terminal or the lower 

 jaw projecting; maxillary without a supplemental bone; no palatine 

 teeth; nostril of blind side near dorsal ridge; preopercle with free mar- 

 gin; fin rays all articulated; dorsal fin beginning over or in front of 

 upper eye; ventral with 6 or fewer rays; vertebrae not fewer than 30. 



KEY TO THE GENERA 



a. Body short, deep, much compressed; interorbital usually broad, flat or con- 

 cave; lower eye well in advance of upper one; lateral line developed only 

 on ocular side, with an arch anteriorly; ventral fin of ocular side median, 

 with a long base, its first ray well in advance of first ray of that of blind 



side Bothus (p. 461) 



aa. Body generally more elongate; interorbital usually narrower; ventral fins 

 symmetrically placed, or that of ocular side more or less median, the 

 latter with a short base, its first ray not far in advance of first ray of fin on 

 blind side. 



SJ The classification of Norman (1934) as to the family and genera has been followed. 



