PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 143 



head and reaching backwards to the second anal ray. Lower rays very 

 short. 



Middle ray of ventral rather longer than the first, considerably longer 

 than the third, and reaching to the base of the anal papilla. All the 

 rays of the preceding fins simple. 



Caudal nearly straight on its posterior border, the two outer principal 

 rays simple, the remaining nine once bifurcate. Accessory rays numer- 

 ous. 



Upper part of head and body covered with strongly ctenoid scales, 

 except a narrow line along each side of dorsal. The scales of lateral 

 line (about 39) more than twice as long and deep as those above them, 

 ctenoid on hinder margin, and with a toothed keel near their upper mar- 

 gin. Lower portion of body scaleless. 



Gill-openings continuous ; the membrane emarginate, not attached to 

 the isthmus. Branchiostegals six. 



Males with a long anal papilla, ending in a crescentic stiff, tapering 

 portion, from the upper side of which, near its tip, springs a long tubu- 

 lar filament. 



Color of upper part of body reddish brown or gray, with obscure 

 darker transverse bands. Fins dark olivaceous in recent examples, 

 darkest toward the margins, the pectorals near base and the sides of 

 the head greenish, thickly dotted with black. In some the dorsal and 

 anal are lighter. 



I have only seen adult males. 



This species was first found in the markets of San Francisco in the 

 summer of 1879, and was noticed by me in a paper published in the Min- 

 ing and Scientific Press of that city, 1879, in the following terms : 

 " Some months ago I wrote for publication a description of a small scul- 

 pin which I named Chitonotus megacephalus, the large-headed mailed- 

 back. * * * I find that Dr. Steiudachner has got ahead of me, and 

 has described the same fish from specimens obtained in Puget Sound. 

 He also gives a figure. From this figure I judge that the form and pro- 

 portions of the dorsal fin vary considerably. In my specimens the first 

 spine is exceedingly long, the third quite short, shorter than the fourth, 

 and as these spines are twice as distant from each other as are any of 

 the others, and the membrane between them dips down almost to its 

 base, the fin is practically divided in two. Dr. Steindachner's figure 

 shows only a slight emargination of the fin, the first spine only slightly 

 longer than the others, and the spines equidistant." 



Professor Jordan, who has handled numerous examples from Puget 

 Sound, informs me that they agree in every respect with the figure given 

 by Steiudachner, and that he has no doubt of the distinctness of the 

 Californian type. In his description Dr. Steiudachner mentions the di- 

 vision of the dorsal in terms that lead me to suspect that he possessed 

 both types. 



