THE DISCOBOLI. 67 



Liparis pulchellus. 



Plate IV.; Plate V. Figs 0-8; Plate VIII. Figs. 4-7, 13-14. 



Liparis pulchellus Ayres, 1855, Pr. Cal. Acad., I. 23; Gtli., 1861, Cat., III. 164, 559; Ayies, 1873, 

 Pr. Cal. Acad., I. (reprint) 22 ; St., 1875, lehth. Beitr., III. 53, — 1876, S. B. Ak. Wien, LXXII. 81 ; 

 J. & G., 1880, Pr. U. S. Mus., III. 4.51, — 1881, Pr. U. S. Mus., IV. 5, 62, — L.pulchella, 1882, Btdl. 16 

 U. S. Mus., 741; Bean, 1881, Pr. U. S. Mus., IV. 247, 271,-1883, Pr. U. S. Mus., VI. 355; Jor., 

 1887, Rep. U. S. F. Comm., 1885, 903. 



Cyclogasler pulchellus Gir., 1859, Pacif. R. R. Rep., X., Fishes, 132. 



B. 6 ; D. 47-49 ; A. 39-40 ; P. 35-36 ; C. 12 ; Vert. 52. 



In this species the body is elongate, somewhat depressed anteriorly, 

 compressed posteriorly, tapering gradually to the caudal fin, and the body 

 cavity occupies less than two fifths of the total length. The head is less 

 than one fifth of the total ; it is broader than high, and one sixth longer 

 than broad. The short, subquadrangular appearance of the head, and the 

 blunt angles on the snout and above the eyes, serve to distinguish this 

 species from the others. From the side the snout overhangs the mouth, 

 as if the latter were inferior and the former slightly bent upward. The 

 crown is flattened ; the interorbital space, in alcoholic specimens, is a trifle 

 concave, both longitudinally and transversely ; the cheeks are swollen. The 

 snout is broad, thick, subtruncate, very blunt, and less than twice as long 

 as the eye. The mouth is comparatively narrow, its width being less than 

 half the length of the head. Upper lip complete, lower interrupted more 

 than half the width of the cleft. Teeth very small, slender, tricuspid, with 

 rounded bases which taper toward the summit, where there is a slight degree 

 of compression ; median cusp longest. Pharyngeal teeth simple, in a pair 

 of rounded bunches above, and another pair of more elongate groups below. 

 Eye moderate, about one fifth as long as the head, half as wide as the inter- 

 orbital space. Anterior nostril larger, in front of the eye; posterior, so 

 small as to appear obsolete, on the interorbital space near the eye. Gill 

 opening narrow, not as wide as the eye ; less than half of it in front of 

 the base of the pectoral. Three double gills and one single. Pseudo- 

 branchs present. Skin loose, thin, and covered with mucus in life. Dor- 

 sal, anal, and caudal confluent ; the first two do not quite extend to the 

 end of the last, and their anterior rays are buried in the loose tissues. 

 Caudal extending but little beyond the other fins, subtruncate. Pec- 

 toral moderately broad, rounded in the upper portion, indented in the 

 margin near the disk, and fringed by four or five of the rays at the 



