EDWIN CHAPIN STARKS 75 



The scales are crowded anteriorly and grow gradually larger posteriorly. 

 They number 28, counting longitudinally, and 8 transversely, opposite the 

 front of the anal. There are 35 pores in the lateral line including those in 

 the curve. On the ventral region 12 scales lie in a median line between the 

 anal and the ventrals. The head and the fins are entirely naked. 



The color of the head and body is uniformly bright red, growing only 

 very slightly lighter below. A broad white streak runs back across the cheek. 

 The dorsal is alternately red and colorless; the red areas are about three 

 spines wide and the others a little shorter. A small black spot is on the base 

 of the twentieth spine, but it is not ringed. The caudal is yellowish and 

 has no bar at its base. 



A single specimen was taken in a tide pool at Natal. It is 1^ inches 

 long. 



This species differs from all of the others of its genus in having a shorter 

 anal, and in color. It seems to be closest to Anchcnoptcrus jasciatus (Stein- 

 dachner). 



222. Blennius cristatus Linnaeus. 



Numerous specimens were taken in the rock pools at Natal. The larg- 

 est males have a moss-like growth on the tips of the first two anal rays. The 

 color is variable. Some of them are uniform dark brown, nearly black above, 

 and only slightly lighter below, while no cross bars are evident. The fins 

 are all nearly black. Others are very light grayish or slate-color, with about 

 6 double cross bars on the back and side, and with the fins light or slightly 

 dusky. These two extremes merge into each other, and all of the inter- 

 mediate shades of color are represented. 



223. Salariichthys textilis (Quoy and Gaimard). 



This species and Labrisonius nuchipinnis were the most abundant of 

 the fishes in the tide pools at Natal. 



The head is short and steeply declivous in front of the eyes, descending 

 in a straight line at an angle of about 70 degrees. The top of the head is 

 horizontal, and the part just above and behind the eyes is broadly rounded. 

 The mouth is inferior, very broad, and more transverse than lateral. Its 

 greatest width is equal to the distance of its corner from the edge of the 

 operculum in a horizontal line. The teeth on the jaws are very fine, in a 

 single row, and very freely movable. There is a canine on each side of the 

 mandible a considerable distance inside of the marginal teeth, its length is 

 about a third of the diameter of the eye. A single row of small conical 

 teeth are on the vomer. There is a multifid barbel at the anterior nostril. 



