562 CONTRIBUCIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY-r-IV. 



290.— SCOKPIS Cuvier & Valenciennes. 



(Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. viii, 503, 1831 : type Scorjnsgeorgianus Cuv. & 

 Val.) 



Body ovate or suborbicular, covered with small, firm, ctenoid scales, 

 •which also cover the membranes of the soft parts of the vertical fins ; 

 mouth small, terminal, horizontal ; the maxillary narrow, slipj)ing under 

 the edge of the rather narrow preorbital; sides, top of head and 

 jaws closely scaled ; preopercle entire or minutely crenulate ; jaws with 

 broad bands of slender teeth; those in the outer series incisor-like,* 

 compressed, narrow and lanceolate in form, the outer surface transversely 

 convex, the inner concave ; the other teeth of the jaws are similar, but 

 grow progressively smaller backward toward the inside of the mouth ; 

 incisors without conspicuous roots behind; all the teeth are somewhat 

 movable, as in Girella; no molar teeth ; vomer, palatines, and tongue 

 with patches of minuce villiform teeth ; gill-rakers slender, rather long j 

 dorsal spines low, in a slight groove, about 10 in number -, soft part of the 

 fin elongate, much longer than the spinous part, sometimes falcate; 

 anal spines small, graduated, the soft rays numerous; caudal lunate; 

 scales thiunish, adherent, with smaller ones intermixed ; pyloric coeca 

 extremely numerous ; air-bladder small ; branchiostegals 7. Warm seas. 

 {rrxop-cc, name of some sea-fish; from ay.op-ux;^ scoriMon.) 



a. Body ovate; tins not falcate. (Ctesiosowia Kaup t) 



§88. S. califoi'Eisensos Steindachner. — Medialuna. 



Blackish above, tinged with bluish ; steel-blue or grayish below, some- 

 what mottled ; sides with faint oblique vertical lines of spots ; fins black- 

 ish. Body elliptic-ovate, its outlines regular; head bluntish, rounded, 

 strongly convex ; maxillary not reaching front of eye ; eye small, 1^ in 

 snout, 5 in head ; middle spines of dorsal highest, their height scarcely 

 greater than the diameter of the eje ; soft dorsal low, not elevated in 

 front, little higher than the spines; anal low; caudal lunate, the upper 

 Jobe slightly longer ; pectorals short and narrow ; ventrals rather small. 

 Head 3|; depth 2i D. IX, I, 22; A. Ill, 19; scales 9-58-19. L. 12 

 iinches. Coast of California, from Point Concepcion southward ; a hand- 

 isome fish, of considerable value as food. 



.(vSteindachner, Ichthyol. BeibrilgB, iii, 19, 1875.) 



"^.In Scorpis georgianns, the type of the genus, the outer teeth are said to be conic. 

 Tljiis is probably erroneous, otherwise our s^iecies does not belong to the genus. 

 tKaup ; Bleaker, Sjstema Porcarum ii, 11, 1875; type ^Scorpis aquipinnis Rich. 



