136 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



to the posterior teeth, but somewhat enlarged. Lateral teeth of lower 

 jaw short, blunt, the series extending behind the anterior canines. 

 Lips fall, the upper protractile. Head naked. Gill membranes united, 

 without isthmus. 



Body covered with minute scales, the usual three parallel lateral lines 

 running without union from the head to the tail. Each of these, as in 

 other species, with a series of simple, transverse, alternating, short 

 branches at right angles, and each with one or two open pores. These 

 branches correspond in the outer lines each to a dorsal or anal ray. 

 Middle line farther from each of the outer lines than these are from the 

 dorsal or anal. A short dorsal line, similar to the lateral lines and simi- 

 larly branched, extending from the occiput to the first dorsal spine. 

 An abdominal line on each side of the belly. These gradually converge 

 anteriorly and meet on the breast. They are not connected with the loiver 

 lateral line. In the other species of the genus the lower lateral line 

 sends a branch to the abdominal line. 



The vertical fins are similar in all the species, the dorsal of low sharp 

 spines only; the anal similar, but composed of soft rays, both slightly 

 joined to the caudal. 



Dorsal fin beginning close behind the pectoral, at a distance from the 

 opercular angle not greater than the diameter of the eye. Anal begin- 

 ning about a head's length nearer the snout than the base of the cau- 

 dal, or about 1^ head's lengths nearer snout than end of caudal. 



Pectoral fin quite small, hut several times larger than in any of the other 

 species, larger than the eye, its length about equal to the distance 

 between the middle and lower lateral lines. 



Fin rays: D. LXX; A. 50; P. 14. 



Color olive-brown, yellowish below ; the sides everywhere with mar- 

 blings of different shades of brown, mostly in the form of vertical bars. 

 Some round black spots along the back and upper part of the sides; 

 a black spot behind opercles. Head brown above, yellowish below; 

 a narrow black streak from eye directly backward across the temporal 

 region. Numerous black spots on sides of head, but no radiating bands. 

 Dorsal and anal fins with black spots ; pectorals plain yellowish, a con- 

 spicuous dark axillary spot ; caudal plain reddish. 



This species differs from the others of the genus in the large pectorals, 

 the absence of anterior union of the lower lateral and the abdominal 

 lines, in the position of the first rays of dorsal and anal, in the presence 

 of more than two canines in the upper jaw, and in the coloration, the 

 sides of the head being without stripes and the caudal i)lain. . 



It is known to us from about twelve examjiles taken at the Point of 

 Los Pinos, near Monterey. It inhabits rocks at the extreme low-tide 

 mark, and is abundant chiefly among the masses of mussels which 

 cover the outermost rocks exposed to the wash of the waves. Like the 

 other species of the genus, it is very active and makes its way readily 

 out of water over damp rocks and algce. It seems to reach a smaller 

 size than the other species. 



