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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. xxxin. 



Body short, compressed, the profiles above and below strongly arched; 

 the outline incurved iit the nape; snout short, scared}" longer than eye; 

 mouth small, the jaws equal; outer teeth of lower jaw enlarged; villi- 

 form teeth on vomer and palatines. Scales large, mostly cycloid, the 

 smaller slightly ctenoid. Preopercle strongly serrate; cheeks with 4 

 rows of scales; suborbital rim and preorbital apparently scaleless, but 

 with mucous stria^; opcrcle scaled; opercular spine obsolete; supraor- 

 bital rim somewhat elevated; interorbital area very narrow. If in eye. 

 Branchiostegals 5. (lill -rakers short and blunt, about »)+6. 



First soft ray of dorsal filiform (broken in specimen); dorsal tin not 

 notched; fourth spine not elevated, 2 in head; a slight fleshy tag behind 

 tip of each spine; second anal spine enlarged, l^j in head; anal fin trun- 

 cate; pectoral with 6 simple rays, the longest reaching l)eyond origin 

 of soft ravs of anal, a little longer than head; caudal lunate. 



Fig. 1. — ClERHITIC'HTHYS AUREUS. 



Color uniform pale, doubtless orange or yellow in life, with no traces 

 of markings of any kind. Of this rare species we have seen but one 

 specimen, 4^ inches in length. It was taken at Misaki, and was pre- 

 sented to us by Professor Mitsukuri. It probably lives in rather deep 

 water. It is the type of the subgenus Cirr/iitojms Gill, said to be dis- 

 tinguished from CirrJdtichtliyH by the seal}" suborbital. The subor- 

 bital ring is said to be naked in the type of Cirrhitichthys {grap.hidop- 

 terus = aprinus). We are, however, unable to find true scales on the 

 narrow suborbital of C. aureus. The preorbital has stri^ or mucif erous 

 ducts resembling scales. The species is very close to Cirrhitichthys 

 hleelceri Da}^ of India, and it may prove to be the same, which is the 

 latest judgment of Doctor Day. The two have the same numbers of 



