PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 39 
stronger than in related species. The nuchal spines are as usual placed 
close behind the occipital. 
Preorbital bone rather broad, with a single obsolete spine directed 
downward. Preopercle with five rather short and bluntish spines, the 
second the larger, the three lower quite small. Opercle with two blunt- 
ish, diverging spines. A blunt spine on the shoulder girdle above the 
pectorals; two sharp suprascapular spines. Subopercle and lower edge 
of opercle each with a blunt point. Preorbital scaly below. Maxillary 
naked. 
Eye rather large, its diameter about one-quarter the length of the 
head. 
Gill-rakers clavate, short, stiff, compressed, armed with bristly teeth 
above and within. There are about thirty of them in all, those nearest 
the middle of the arch longest and most perfect, the others gradually 
grewing smaller and incomplete. About half of them have the poste- 
rior edge free. The longest is about one-third the length of the eye 
(4 in S. melanops ; 2 in S. pinniger). In form they are midway between 
the tubercle-like gill-rakers of “ Sebastosomus” (S. melanops) and the 
long and slender gill-rakers in “* Sebastomus” (S. pinniger, flavidus, auricu- 
latus, ete.). 
Branchiostegals 7, the gill membranes, as in other species, little 
united, without isthmus. 
Scales moderate, essentially as in S. fasciatus and related species. 
Lateral line with 55 scales. 
Dorsal fin with strong spines, the fourth to seventh highest and sub- 
equal, the lowest more than half the height of the highest. Soft dorsal 
rather higher than any of the spines. Caudal fin broad, rounded. 
Anal fin with the second spine robust, about as long as the third and 
much stronger, the soft rays high. 
Pectoral broad and rounded, its base deep, nearly one-third the 
length of the head, its lower rays thickened as in S. melanops, its tips 
reaching just past the vent. Ventrals falling just short of the front of 
anal. 
Fin rays: D. XII, 1,13; A. III, 5. 
General color dark olive, blackish on the head and back, the sides 
somewhat yellowish; sides of body with black cross-bands which are 
somewhat oblique; these bands are usually distinet, but are sometimes 
nearly obsolete in dark-colored examples. The first band runs down- 
ward from front of dorsal across base of pectoral; the second from 
near the middle of spinous dorsal to behind the ventrals; the third from 
the posterior part of the dorsal to the vent; the fourth and fifth above 
the anal, and the sixth at base of caudal. Another black bar extends 
across the scapular region and the opercular spines, and two bands radi- 
ate from the eye, obliquely downward and backward. Belly dusky 
greenish; fins blackish, with a strong olive tinge. 
_ Lips, mouth, front and lower part of the head, with a strong wash of 
