G70 CO:s'TRlBUTrONS to north AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



lio. Body robust, rather deep and compressed. Head long, acute hi 

 profile, there being a nearly straight slope from a bony prominence in 

 front of the spinous dorsal to the tip of the lower jaw. Mouth rather 

 large, oblique, the lower jaw projecting; maxillary broad, extending to 

 opposite the middle of the eye; its length 2| in head; i)remaxillary on 

 level of lower border of eye; cranial ridges quite low, their spines 

 bluntish and depressed; preocular, supraocular, tympanic, and occipital 

 ridges present; interorbital space flattish, narrow, not so broad as the 

 eye, not widened behind, with sparse, smooth scales; two long frontal 

 ridges extend the length of the interorbital space; these are covered 

 with bare skin; behind and between these are two shorter ridges cov- 

 ered by naked skin; occipital ridges long, curved, diverging behind; 

 mandible naked; maxillary with a few scales; suborbital stay ver\^ 

 prominent, its tip nearly reaching the preopercle; preopercular spines 

 very strong, the second longest; opercular spines long; preorbital 

 wide. Eye very large, its diameter Sf in length of head. Gill-rakers 

 rather short, robust, much compressed, the longest about one-fourth the 

 length of the eye. Scales on head all small and thin, mostlj' cycloid; 

 scales of body smoother than usual; accessory scales very numerous. 

 Dorsal spines robust, rather high, the fifth not quite half the length of 

 the head; those behind rapidly shortened, the membrane joining the 

 thirteenth spine below its middle; soft rays about as high as spines; 

 caudal slightly em arginate; anal low, its second spine 2^ in head, much 

 longer and stronger than third, both robust; pectorals moderate, not 

 reaching vent, 3| in length; the base equal to diameter of eye; ven- 

 trals not reaching tips of pectorals. Peritoneum white. Head 2i; 

 depth 2^-. D. XriI-12; A. Ill, 7; Lat. 1. 55. L. 15 inches. Santa 

 Barbara to Monterey, in deep water; rare. In life, the most brilliantly 

 colored large fish in our waters. 



{Sebastichthijs rubririiictas Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 291.) 



(utaaaaa. Species with the scales of moderate size, the cranial ridges strong and 

 mostly high, but not shai'p, the postociilar wanting; the jaws nearly equal, 

 the lower naked; the gill-rakers short; the pectorals broad, with thickened 

 lower rays; anal III, 5 to III, 7. (SebastlchtJii/s* Gill.) 



B026. S. a.i9a-icuaa.tus (Grd.) J. & G. 



Color blackish brown, much mottled with light brown; top of head 

 dark; a dark blotch on the upper angle of the opercle; entire body 

 Hushed with brownish red, this color most noticeable on front of head; 



*Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 18'J2, 278: typo Scbastcs nigroclnctus Ayres: 

 {(jE/3a(jroi, maguiticent; /^Ous/fish.) 



