Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology 7 



clear distally; caudal fin dusky at base, shading to black 

 posteriorly, but with an abrupt, clear margin ; lower fins clear. 

 The development of the color pattern in the two sexes offers 

 some points of interest. Young males 23 to 26 mm. long are 

 colored very much like the young females. The body is 

 marked with rather small black spots of various shapes, mostly 

 absent along light streaks just above and just below an irregu- 

 lar axial dark stripe. In males of 30 mm., the spots have 

 become obsolete, or rendered indistinct by the deepening of 

 the ground color. Even in the half grown, however, the 

 widened and deepened axial band remains; there is also fre- 

 quently evident a dark blotch between this streak and the 

 anus. Females less than 30 mm. long have the rather faint 

 axial streak intensified by the concentration along it, and the 

 partial absence just above and below it, of the small black 

 irregular spots which scatteringly cover the body. In the 

 females over 30 mm. long the spots are smaller, and in those 

 over 3n mm. long they have become indistinct. In females 

 over 45 mm. long the lateral band is also very indistinct or 

 not evident, the pattern consisting of the cross-hatching caused 

 by the disposition of pigment about the margins of the scales. 

 The coloration of the adult female has thus come to resemble 

 that of the adult male, but by a slower rate of change. The 

 color of the body is less intense in the female than in the 

 male, however, in all specimens over 28 mm. long. The dorsal 

 and caudal fins become dusky, but not blackish as in the male. 



Ill 



Genus Skiffia Meek 



SUffia Meek, Publ. Field Mus., Zool., 3, 1902, p. 102; il)id., 5, 1904, 

 p. 141. 



The species referred to Skiffia differ from those of Goodea 

 chiefly in the more advanced location of the dorsal fin. 



4. Skiffia hilineata Bean 



Characodon hilineatus Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat, Mus., 10, 1887, p. 371, 

 pi. 20, fig. 2; Jordan and Evermann, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 47, pt. 1, 

 1896, p. 668; pt. 4, 1900, pi. 119, fig, 293, 



