Starks : IcHTHYOi.or.icAi, Sl'rvf.v ABOUT San Ji'AN Islands. 191 



T,T,. Scorpaenichthys marmoratus (Ayres). 

 A lar\al si)ociineii 15 mm. in length and a couple of very large ones 

 were seined, but the latter were not saved. The small one is compressed 

 and has three well de\eK)ped preoperciilar spines; the inlerorhital 

 space is much widiT than in ihe adult; and the tlesh\- llajjs on the head 

 are very shorl. 



;i4. Blennicottus globiceps (Cirard). 

 .\ single specimen sc\en and a lialf inches in length, the largest 

 ever recorded, was collected by the zoologists from the University 

 of Kansas at Kanaka Bay, San Juan Island, in a tidal pool. A 

 series of specimens from four to six inches in length from Xeah Bay 

 are at hand. The larger ones have a very conspicuous bony ridge 

 running back from each eye. The supraorbital ridge is higher, and 

 the lateral line flaps bear more cirri on their posterior edges than 

 in the small ones. In the small ones the ridges running back from 

 the eyes are onl\- indicated, but there is a perfect gradation in this 

 as well as in the other characters. Specimens from the California 

 coast have not been taken of greater length than about four inches. 

 Specimens from Pigeon Point, California, have the head a little more 

 thickl\- covered with cirri than in the northern specimens, but no 

 other differences are apparent. 



35. Oxycottus embryum (Jordan and Starks). 

 Four specimens were taken in tidal pools and seined. It is appar- 

 ently rare throughout its known range from Point Lobos, California, 

 to Karluk, Alaska. The species may be easily distinguished froni 

 OxycoHiis aciiliceps by the four pairs of tentacles on the top of the head 

 between the eyes and the occiput, the very minute nasal tentacle, and 

 the absence of a tentacle on the eye. On the other species there are 

 only three pairs of tentacles on the head, the nasal tentacle is long, 

 reaching nearly to above the middle of the eye, and the eye-ball just 

 above the pupil bears a simple tentacle. In Oxycottus cmhryum the 

 body is much stouter, especially at the caudal peduncle; the anal 

 papilla smaller; the spinous dorsal rounder, and not so high in front: 

 and the anal rays are fewer. There are multiiid Haps on the anterior 

 part of the lateral line in Oxycottus embryum each with from two to 

 four points (except in the young where they are simple tentacles), 

 and not de\eloped as far back as the front of the anal, while in Oxy- 



