PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 293 
are one to three conspicuous spines on the subopercle. Opercle with 
two diverging spines, above which are two suprascapular spines. 
Eye moderate, high up, 4 to 44 in head. Preorbital with the neck 
very broad, with two bluntish downward-directed spines in front, its 
narrowest portion two-fifths the diameter of the eye. Suberbital stay 
short and rather weak. Maxillary and preorbital with fine scales. 
Gill-rakers rather long and strong, compressed, toothed on the inner 
margin, shorter than in atrovirens, the longest slightly clavate, about half 
= 5 
the length of the eye; the number about i? nearly all of them free. 
Scales moderate, with few accessory smaller ones, in 55 transverse 
series. 
Dorsal spines very strong and high, about as in chlorostictus, higher 
than in any other species; the first about half as long as the eye; the 
fourth the highest, more than half the length of the head, and much 
higher than the soft rays. The twelfth spine is a little higher than the 
first, and its membrane joins the thirteenth about half-way up. Mem- 
brane of spinous dorsal rather more deeply incised than in other species. 
Soft dorsal rather high, but lower than the spines. 
Anal spines much smaller than in rosaceus, ete.; the second not longer 
than the third, and not much stronger; about two-thirds as high as the 
soft rays. Soft rays of anal high. Caudal truncate. Pectoral shorter 
than head, not reaching the vent; its base rather broad. 
Ventrals moderate, not reaching vent. 
DP XT, 16; A. TI, 6. 
Color rather bright and pale, yellowish red, becoming lighter below, 
the reddish and yellowish forming large and irregular areas, Sometimes 
one shade predominating, sometimes the other. A pink cross-blotch on 
the back at the base of the second and third dorsal spines. Upper parts 
of the head mostly pink, with broad olive shades running backward, 
one on the lower lip, one on the maxillary, one from preorbital region 
downward, one from the eye backward and downward across the cheeks, 
and another across the opercular spines. Fins all pinkish red; the mem- 
branes olive. Top of head usually with alternating cross-shades of 
pinkish and yellowish. In some specimens the yellowish shades are re- 
placed by light olive. Others are quite red; others still are quite 
brownish. The spots on the back show a teydency to the rosy spots 
found in constellatus and rosaceus. 
This species was first known to us from two specimens taken on a 
reef in Santa Barbara Channel. A single example was afterwards 
noticed in the museum of the California Academy of Sciences, and 
numerous others have been since obtained in the San Francisco markets, 
where it is very common. It reaches a larger size than its relatives, 
chlorostictus and constellatus, found in the same markets, and, like them, 
it has been confounded by previous observers with rosaceus and auricu- 
latus. It may be known from its relatives by its high dorsal spines, low 
