PHILIPPINE MACROUROID FISHES—GILBERT AND HUBBS. 413 
The first dorsal spine is sharp but short, the length of its external 
portion being one-seventh that of the orbit; its root is composed of 
two posterior condyles separated anteriorly by a socket, from which 
a foramen passes backward between the condyles; the exposed por- 
tion is of pyramidal form, with grooves between the four sharp 
angles. The first dorsal spine appears to be more than a rudiment: 
it probably serves as a support for the strong denticulated second 
spine. The heavy basal half of the second spine is triangular in 
cross-section, with the sides grooved; the sharp anterior keel bears 
94 (20 or 30) strong spinules, becoming longer and more slender 
upwards, and confined to the basal 0.6 of the spine. The spine be- 
comes very slender distally, and exceeds the length of the head by 
a distance contained 5.2 (2.4, 2.9) times in the head; the third ray 
is contained 1.1 (to 1.5) times in the head; all the soft rays of the first 
dorsal except the last two are branched in their distal half. The rays 
of the second dorsal are rudimentary anteriorly, and can not be 
traced so far forward in the type as in the paratype, the interdorsal 
space being 2.3 times the base of the first dorsal in the type, and 
1.3 times that distance in the two paratypes. The pectoral fin is not 
produced, its length being contained 1.7 times in the head (1.4 times 
in a paratype); its fifth ray is longest. Ventral with 8 rays, the 
outer one filamentous and nearly as long as the head, reaching back- 
ward to the ninth anal ray; ventral inserted slightly behind the 
pectoral, but anterior to the dorsal. 
The ground color is dusky brownish, becoming darker on the belly 
and on the head, particularly toward the snout; the sides of the 
belly and‘of the head are underlain with a silvery pigment; the 
lips, nasal fossa, and upper half of branchiostegal membranes are 
blackish. The fins are all blackish, with a lttle grayish pigment 
basally, overlying the darker shade. The base of the anal has a 
narrow whitish, punctulate streak. Lining of buccal cavity bluish 
black; of branchial cavity, brown, shading into black toward 
branchial aperture; parietal peritoneum dusky brown. 
C. semiscaber belongs to a rather well-marked group of species 
which agree in possessing a produced dorsal spine, a deep and 
sharply compressed body, and a dorsal contour horizontal behind 
the first dorsal fin. It differs from all the other species of the group 
in the lower dorsal spine, and in numerous other details: from @. 
marginatus,’ the Japanese representative, in the much darker color, 
less regular arrangement of the spinules on the scales, blunter head, 
more numerous serrations of the dorsal spine, etc.; from C. mécrops, 
in the more numerous ventral rays; much darker color; more numer- 
1¥or description and synonomy see Gilbert and Hubbs, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 51, 
1916, p. 164. 
