420 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Color in spirits: Upper parts brownish, with two very couspicuons white saddle- 

 shaped bars exteiuling downward and forward i'roui back. The lirst of these, about 

 as wide as orbit, extends from below the dorsal notch in a straight lino toward 

 lower axil of pectorals, including- above the jxjsterior margin of spinous dorsal and 

 the extreme basal portion of lirst rays of soft dorsal. The second bar includes 

 dorsally the terminal portion of soft dorsal ujion which it extends and the anterior 

 portion of caudal peduncle. Like the anterior bar, it is variable in width ; it extends 

 forward and downward to below caudal peduncle. The ground color becomes inten- 

 sified along the margins of these light bars. Caudal with a light basal bar which 

 becomes widened and pure w^hite in its lower half, adding a third to the series of 

 conspicuous light markings. In some specimens these white bars are tinged with 

 brownish; hence less conspicuous. Under parts whitish. Li])s and lower jaw with 

 light and dark crossbars, which are often indistinct. Branchiostcgal membranes 

 sometimes with indistinct crossbars. The darker interspaces below soft dorsal and 

 on caudal peduncle usually eucircle the body below, but are sometimes (in males) 

 broken on middle of sides with spots and blotches of white (see liguro in Nelson's 

 report cited above). Axil of pectorals usually with two round white spots, most 

 distinct in males. Basal portion of anterior face of pectorals dusky or black, in 

 males with two round white spots; fin distally barred with light and dark. Caudal 

 crossbarred. Anal and ventrals with faint crossbars or plain. Dorsals blackish. 



Taken abundantly in Bristol Bay, Alaska, at stations 3229, 3230, 3231, 3232, 3233, 

 3234, 3244, 3247, and 3300; depths, 5 to 17 fathoms. 



We are unable to follow Dr. Bean in identifying this fish with Porocottus quadrifiUa 

 Gill (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1859, 166). The latter is described as hav^ing a 

 single hooked preopercular spine, an opercle without rib or spine, and large pores 

 on head and lower jaw. None of these statements apply to the present species. 

 P. quadrifilis is also said to have five branchiostegal rays, but this is possibly an 

 error. It is also described as having a slender superciliary filament, and one on each 

 side of nape. We do not find, to offset these, any details in the original description 

 which agree strikingly with our fish, even the color being inaiiplicable. 



61. Acanthocottus polyacanthocephalus (Pallas) 



This species closely resembles J. liumiUs, but differs in the much deeper and loss- 

 depressed head and body, the larger preopercular spines, the shorter and usually 

 less-pronounced occipital crests, the absence of spinous plates on sides of body, and 

 the presence of 10 (very rarely 9) spines in the dorsal fin. The coloration is also 

 different, the dark bars on back being much better defined, not breaking up at an 

 early age, as in J. humilis, into small black spots and blotches. None of our speci- 

 mens show a jiore behind the last gill, though this is constantly present in A. huinilis. 

 In both species the toji and sides of head, including nape, are covered with small 

 dermal warts. Both agree, also, in possessing supraorbital and occipital tubercles, 

 behind the former of which is a cluster of short diverging ridges. Neither species 

 seems to possess filaments on the head. In a highly colored male of J. pohjacantho- 

 cephalns, exhibiting round white spots on lower part of sides and with horny tuber- 

 cles on the inner surfaces of the pectoral rays, the sides of the body both above and 

 below the lateral line are beset with sparse strong-embedded spines directed back- 

 ward. All other specimens are naked, and it is probable that A . poljiacanthocephaluH 

 never develops the circular spinous plates characteristic of A. humilis and some other 

 species. 



The following table gives the fin rays in 32 specimens : 



