PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 55 
and ventrals overpassing pectorals and reaching nearly or quite to the 
vent. 
Lowest lateral line usually forking about midway between ventrals 
and vent. 
Pectoral spotted all over with light and dark spots. 
Common in the bay of San Francisco. 
Chirus guttatus. 
First dorsal with twenty or twenty-one rays, ventrals and pectorals 
usually about even posteriorly and scarcely reaching to the vent; posi- 
tion of the fork of the lowest lateral line somewhat variable. 
Spots on sides bright orange when fresh, but becoming dark on ex- 
posure to air or alcohol. 
Chirus maculo-seriatus nov. sp. 
D. XXI, 3;; A. 22-23; P.19; V.4; C. (principal rays) 15; L. lat. 110. 
Body elongate, compressed, the greatest height about one-fifth of the 
length (caudal included); greatest thickness, at opercles, about three- 
fourths of the greatest height; depth of caudal peduncle about 5° of the 
greatest depth; head about one-fourth of total length. 
Dorsal outline rising at an angle of about 20°, with a slight curve to 
the origin of the dorsal, or to about its fifth ray, whence it descends 
eradually in a straight line to the caudal peduncle, which is wedge- 
shaped, increasing in width towards base of tail. 
Abdominal outline descending slowly to the scapular girdle, thence 
nearly level to anal; anal base sloping upwards with a slight curve. 
Snout longer than orbit; interocular width slightly less than length 
of orbit; forehead slightly curved transversely, summit of ascending 
premaxillary processes rising slightly above the profile of the snout. 
Anterior nostril with the edges raised into a short tube. 
Eyes lateral, elliptical; a fimbriated flap over the orbit. 
Jaws subequal, the upper slightly projecting; posterior extremity of 
maxillary reaching slightly beyond anterior margin of orbit, that of 
mandible below the center of the pupil. 
Cardiform teeth in both jaws, in several rows in front, diminishing to 
a single series at the sides, the outer row larger than the others; a patch 
of similar teeth upon the vomer, and occasionally a few on the anterior 
part of the palatines, a character which certainly cannot be of generic 
value in this group. Branchiostegals six; gill-openings continuous be- 
low, no isthmus; gill-rakers obsolescent, transverse. 
Dorsal arising above the flap of the opercle, slightly in front of the 
pectoral base, deeply notched; the first dorsal strongly arched on its 
upper margin; the first ray much shorter than the second ; the other rays 
increasing in height to about the fourth, thence diminishing to the 
twentieth, which is considerably shorter than the unarticulated ray at 
the commencement of the second portion of the dorsal. 
Second dorsal lower than the first, the rays increasing to about the 
