464 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.39.' 



weak, second slightly shorter than third, which is 4 J in head; soft anal 

 similar to soft dorsal, its last ray similarly produced. Pectoral long, 

 equal to head, falcate; ventrals reaching half way to insertion of anal, 

 If in head. Caudal deeply forked, lobes equal. 



Scales ctenoid, rows parallel above and below lateral line; present 

 on opercles in 13 rows, on cheek in 6 rows, limbs of preopercle naked, 

 as is preorbital ring, and head, save for temporal bands, when the 

 scales are in four series of five or six each. Dorsals and anal naked, 

 caudal densely scaled. 



Color of an old alcoholic specimen uniform silvery, purplish in life ; 

 dark purplish, paler below; each scale on sides and back with a central 

 darker spot, forming indistinct lines; fins pale. 



(Named for Philipp Friedrich von Siebold, of Leyden, an associate 

 of Professor Schlegel.) 



6. Genus ETELIS Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



Etelis Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. 2, 1828, p. 127 (car- 



bunculus). 

 Elastoma Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes, vol. 2, 1839, pp. 168, 202 (oculatus). 

 Hes-peranthias Lowe, Fishes of Madeira, 1843, p. 14 {oculatus). 

 Macrofs Dumeril, Ichth. Analytique, 1856, p. 279 {oculatus). 



Body elongate, covered with large scales; eye very large; preor- 

 bital very narrow ; mouth moderate, the lower jaw projecting; maxil- 

 lary scaly; canines in upper jaw only; no teeth on tongue or ptery- 

 goids; gill rakers long and slender. Dorsal fiii deeply notched, rather 

 short, its spines 10 in number, its soft rays not scaly; caudal very 

 deeply forked, the upper lobe produced in the adult; pectoral fin 

 falcate, the lower rays not produced ; last rays of dorsal and anal pro- 

 duced; head naked above; skull with the interorbital area flat, sepa- 

 rated from the occipital area by a transverse line, limiting the median 

 and also the lateral crests; frontals wide in front, not cavernous, 

 simply normally perforate; supraorbital margins crenate; periotic 

 region little convex and with the bones tliick, unpolished ; prefrontals 

 behind, with funnel-shaped foramina. The relationships of this genus 

 have been repeatedly misunderstood, but, as Gill has shown, it belongs 

 in the Lutianidae and has no special affinity with AntMas, Perca, or 

 Serranus. In spite of the difference in the form of its dorsal, the rela- 

 tions of Etelis with Afrion are very close. The skulls in the two are 

 almost identical, as has already been noticed by Poey and Gill. The 

 genus probably contains but one species, a brilliantly crimson fish, 

 beautiful in form and color, and widely distributed in the warm seas. 



(^ereXcc, Etelis, a name used by Aristotle for some fish not now 

 recognized.) 



