SHORE FISHES OF GALAPAGOS ISLANDS S^I 



Gerrcsdowl, Evermann & Mkek. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. ^'hil'-^- > f 86. 259. 

 Eucmostomus dowi, Jordan & Evermann, Fishes North and Mid. Amcr.. 11. 

 1367, 1898. 

 i?a;zo-^. _ Panama, Callao, Peru ; Galapagos Islands. 

 One^'specimen taken at Chatham Island which differs somewhat 

 from descriptions of E. dowi also from specimens of the same in the 

 Stanford University collection from Panama, in being less deep, m 

 having the ventral profile of the body almost straight, and in having a 

 more angulated profile from the snout to the dorsal. These are charac- 

 ters, however, subject to much variation. This one specimen is all that 

 we saw, but Steindachner states that the species is present in great 

 numbers about the shores of the Galapagos Islands. Xystcema cinerus 

 is in external appearance extremely similar to Eucinostomus doivi, 

 and is a common Galapagos fish. Hence it might be possible that 

 Steindachner mistook this species for the other, for only on dissecting 

 out the second interh^mal bone would one suspect the two to be dif- 

 ferent if the specimens were mixed together and not examined care- 

 fully. Since, however, the characters by which our specimen differs 

 from the mainland specimens of Eucinostomus dowi are such that 

 one specimen would not suffice for the determining of a species we 

 simply give the following description of it. More material must be 

 obtained to show whether the Galapagos form is E. dozui or an unde- 



scribed form : 



Length 160 mm.; depth 3; head 3*; eye 2f in head; pectoral 

 very slightly longer than head; ventral 2i in head; depth of caudal 

 peduncle 3! in head; snout from eye 3! in head ; first dorsal spine 

 If in head; third anal spine 3! in head; upper lobe of caudal li m 

 head; dorsal IX, 10; anal III, 7. . r 1 



General shape somewhat elongate, mouth placed below longitudinal 

 axis of body, oblique ; profile of head straight from tip of snout to top 

 of supraoccipital crest, from here to front of dorsal straight forming 

 an obtuse angle with the part in front; lower profile of body straight 

 and horizontal from first anal spine to isthmus of gill-opemng; men- 

 tal profile slightly concave; first, second and third dorsal spines high- 

 est, equal, those back of the third graduated decreasingly to the last; 

 first soft ray abruptlv higher, the following successively shorter to the 

 last; first soft ray of anal a little longer than the third spine, about 

 same length as first soft dorsal ray, the following rays graduated to 

 last, which equals last dorsal ray; caudal deeply forked, the upper 

 lobe somewhat the longer; nostrils unequal, the anterior the smaller; 

 maxillary reaching the front of the orbit, exposed part elongate ovate, 



