52 BULLETIN 95, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



becoming smaller posteriorly ; eye large ; border of preopercle with- 

 out serrations; distance from tip of lower jaw to origin of first dorsal 

 2.06 in length ; first dorsal spine longest, 4,28 in head ; caudal deeply 

 forked; ventrals short, 3.5 in head, tips reaching one-third the dis- 

 tance from base of ventrals to origin of anal; scales small, lateral 

 line with a slight downward curve over pectoral ; scales of lateral line 

 large, pores raised; cheeks and opercles scaled, those on cheeks very 

 small. 



Color in alcohol: Back and sides above lateral line slaty brown; 

 sides below lateral line and belly salmon red; dorsal, caudal, and 

 anal blackish; pectorals and ventrals dusky yellowish. Description 

 based on a specimen, 53.7 cm. in length, from Guanape, North 

 Island. 



Family POLYNEMIDAE. 



THE THEEADFINS. 



Genus POLYDACTYLUS Lacepede. 



75. POLYDACTYLUS APPROXIMANS (Lay and Bennett). 

 BAKBTJDO. 



Polynemtis approximans Lay and Bennett, Beechey's Voyage, Zool. Fish., 



1849, p. 57; Mazatlan. 

 Polydactylus approximcms Evermann and Jenkins, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 



vol. 14, 1891, p. 137; Guayraas. — Jordan and Evermann, Fishes North 



and Mid. Amer., vol. 1, 1896, p. 829. — Abbott, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Phila., 1899, p. 344. — Stark s, Fishes from Ecuador and Peru, Proc. 



U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 30, 1906, p. 783. 



One specimen, field No. 1015, 20.7 cm. long, from Tumbes, taken 

 with a casting net (" ataraya ") at the mouth of the Tumbes River. 



Head 3.33 in length; depth 3.26; eye 4.1 in head; snout 5; maxil- 

 lary 2.18; interorbital equal to eye, 4.1; pectoral equal to head, 

 simple rays much longer, reaching beyond origin of anal ; D. VIII-1, 

 12 (^) ; A. Ill, 14; scales 6-60-11. 



Body deep, compressed, dorsal outline rounded; head short, com- 

 pressed; snout pointed, projecting beyond maxillaries a distance of 

 at least one-half diameter of orbit; tip of snout on level of middle 

 of eye and falling away very obliquely to maxillaries, the anterior 

 border of which is little in advance of anterior margin of eye; 

 mouth small, center of maxillary falling below center of eye; third 

 dorsal spine longest, 1.45 in head; anterior and posterior rays of 

 dorsal longest, the distal margin semicircular ; caudal deeply forked, 

 the lobes longer than head ; anal spines very weak ; pectoral filaments 

 long, 6 in number. 



Color silvery yellow, dusky on back ; pectorals black ; a black area 

 on opercules. 



