88 BULLETIN 95^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Body ovate, compressed, \erj deep anteriorly; profile from tip of 

 snout to origin of dorsal nearly straight ; snout a little convex, inter- 

 orbital with a slight concavity and region of nape again slightly 

 convex; greatest height of head nearly equaling its length; eye 

 small, 1.82 in snout, placed close to dorsal profile of head, its hori- 

 zontal diameter narrower than interorbital and nearly as wide as 

 preorbital; nostrils nearer eye than tip of snout, the anterior elon- 

 gate, provided with small flap ; mouth small, nearly horizontal ; 

 maxillary not reaching vertical from anterior border of eye by a 

 distance equal to half diameter of pupil; teeth small, in villiform 

 bands, the outer row in upper jaw a little enlarged; preopercle 

 evenly and finely serrate, the serrae barelj'^ showing through the 

 integument. First dorsal spine small, half as long as second, which 

 is 1.5 in third ; third nearly equal to fourth, which is longest ; dorsal 

 not notched, soft dorsal low ; caudal forked, upper lobe longer than 

 lower; second and third anal spines of about equal length, equal to 

 diameter of eye, the second stouter than the third ; ventrals reaching 

 to within one diameter of pupil of vent; pectoral nearly reaching 

 vertical from anterior border of vent; base of pectoral under origin 

 of dorsal. 



Color shortly after death, dusky silvery with irregular gold 

 stripes, oblique above the lateral line, horizontal below; under side 

 of opercle reddish orange. In alcohol the golden lines along the 

 rows of scales are scarcely discernible ; opercular margin dark ; gen- 

 eral color dusky grayish olive ; dorsal and anal dark. 



This individual does not differ from examples in the United 

 States National Museum and in the Bureau's reserve series from 

 Guaymas and Panama. The convexity of the snout is more pro- 

 nounced in the young. Gilbert and Starks in their Fishes of Panama 

 Bay state that the maxillary extends bej^ond the front of the eye. 

 In none of the specimens examined by us does the maxillary extend 

 beyond the vertical from anterior border of the eye and in large 

 specimens it falls considerably short of reaching the vertical. In 

 other respects our specimen agrees very well with their description of 

 this species. 



117. ORTHOPRISTIS MODESTUS (Tschudi). 



HaemuJon niodestnn) TscHtrni, FaiiuM Peruana, Fishes, 1845, p. 11; Peru. 

 Orthopristis cantharinus Abbott, Marine Fislies of Peru, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila., 1899, p. 351. 



Certain descrepancies in the scant description of this species make 

 it impossible to identify it with any known species. By many it has 

 been considered synonymous with O. cantharinus Jenyns, but from 

 the description it seems to us more closely related to O. chalceus. 



