432 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.37. 



operculum, and a number of short points along the margin above it ; 

 lower face with 3 strong backward! y directed spines ; middle spine of 

 operculum much the longest, longer than the preopercular spine; gill 

 rakers 16. Cheeks, opercles, suborbitals, and occiput scaled. Longest 

 dorsal spine 3.5 in head; longest soft ray 3.4; caudal emarginate; 

 pectoral 2.4 in head; ventral 2.5. 



Color in spirits light yellowish brown, paler below; fins dusky 

 toward tips; caudal with a narrow pale edge on lower and upper 

 lobes, the edge broadest on lower lobe. The young have also a longi- 

 tudinal dark stripe on body, extending forward through eye, and a 

 black blotch on soft dorsal. 



Here described from a large specimen, about 28 inches, from 

 Misaki. We have also a young specimen in good color from the Phil- 

 ippines. The species is not common in Japan, but is valued as food. 

 It reaches a large size, and is known as ara. 



(spinosus, spiny.) 



5. Genus BRYTTOSUS Jordan and Snyder. 



Bryttosus Jordan and Snyder, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 23, 1901, p. 354 

 (kawamebari) . 



Body oblong, compressed; mouth large, protractile; maxillary 

 with a large supplemental bone; jaws, vomer, and palatines with 

 bands of villiform teeth; no true canines; tongue smooth; pre- 

 opercle serrated; opercle with two flat spines; gill rakers long and 

 slender; branchiostegals 7; scales moderate, thin, flexible, cycloid, 

 not easily deciduous; cheeks and opercles scaled; rest of head naked; 

 lateral line continuous, the tubes straight; dorsal fms confluent, the 

 anterior with 12 spines, its base longer than that of second; anal 

 rays III, 9; caudal rounded; ventrals scarcely behind pectorals, close 

 together, each with a short strong spine; pectorals rounded. 



Fresh waters of Japan; one species. This genus in its external 

 characters bears a very close resemblance to the American sunfishes 

 or Centrarchidae, notably to the genus Ghsenobryttus. This resem- 

 blance is heightened by the presence of a small black flap or tip to 

 the opercle, as in Lepomis and related genera. The skeleton has not 

 been compared with that of Leponm or Clisenohryttus , but it would 

 not be strange if Bryttosus should prove allied to the ancestral Ser- 

 ranidse from which the Centrarchidse are developed. Related to 

 Bryttosus are Siniperca and Coreoperca, fishes of the rivers of Cliina 

 and Korea, not found in Japan. From Siniperca, Bryttosus differs 

 in its large scales. 



{BpuTToc, Bryttus, a name given by Cuvier and Valenciennes to 

 Apomotis, an American sunfish.) 



