IM. BLENNIID^ XIPHISTER. 771 



1176. A. atropsirpiireits (Kittlitz) Gill. 



Color grayish olive, varying to brown, everywhere above finely 

 marked with blackish reticulations j along each side of back a series of 

 small, irregular, sharply-defined grayish spots; a series of small pale 

 spots along lateral line; belly pale; crest and middle line of back 

 rather pale; under parts of head yellowish; an oblique, wedge-shaped, 

 pale streak extending downward and backward from the eye, bounded 

 on each side by a sharp light-red line, and then by a dusky area; lower 

 jaw mottled; dorsals olivaceous, speckled, a blackish spot on front; 

 anal olive, tinged with red; pectorals dull orange, barred at base; cau- 

 dal reddish, with narrow pale streaks, and a light bar at base; color 

 sometimes nearly plain purplish, but more often grayish and mottled. 

 Head with a fleshy crest, which rests on a ridge of bone; its height in 

 older specimens about equal to eye; mouth rather large, the maxillary 

 reaching beyond the orbit. Pectorals about half the length of head; 

 dorsal and anal comparatively high, barely connected with the base of 

 caudal; nape midway between origin of dorsal and x>ui3il. Head G^; 

 depth G^. D. LVII; A. 41. Alaska to San Francisco; abundant 

 northward. 



{OplddUnn atropurpnrenm Kittlitz, Denkwiird. eiuer Eeise, Enss.-Amer. i, 225, 1858: 

 Centrovotm crintagalU Giinther, iii, 289: Anoplarchiis purpurescens Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila. ISGl, 261: Anoxdarchus cristagalU Giinther, iii, 564.) 



1177. A. alectrolophus (Pallas) J. & G. 



Brownish-olive, darker above; a series of green blotches along the 

 dorsal; dorsal brownish-olive, with indistinct oblique bars; anal and 

 caudal with wavy lines; head with a longitudinal fleshy crest, extend- 

 ing from above eyes to nape. Anal fin beginning at anterior third of 

 body; dorsal and anal uniting with the caudal; pectorals very small; 

 no ventrals. Lateral line obsolete. I). LXIII; A. 44; C. 13. Island 

 of Talek, Gulf of Penshin. {Cuv. & Val.) Perhaps identical with the 

 preceding. 



(lilennitis alectrolophus Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat. iii, 174: Gunnellus aJeetrolophua 

 C. & V. xi, 447: Centronotm alectrolophus Giinther, iii, 289.) 



411.— XIPHISTER Jordan. 

 (Xiphidion Girard; preoccupied in OrtJioptera.) 

 (Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns. 1879, 241: type Xiphidion mucoaum Girard.) 



Body elongate, eel-shaped, covered with small scales; lateral lines 

 several, viz: one along the median line of the side, one above this, and 

 one below it; one on each side of the abdomen, the two meeting in 



