80 NEW FISHES FKOM PACIFIC COAST GILBERT. 



Scales large, minutely spinous and readily deciduous, very small and 

 cycloid on maxillar^^, mandible, and breast. 



Fin membranes thick and scaled. 



Color: Uniform rose red above, bright silvery on sides and below, 

 sparsely black-punctate, a faint dusky bar behind pectorals. Perito- 

 neum jet-black. Spinous dorsal with dusky margins, the fins otherwise 

 unmarked. 



Many specimens, the largest described being 7 inches long, from 

 Station 2935, in 124 fathoms. 



39 Sebastichthys aurora sp. nov. 



Diagnosis: Scales, large, ctenoid. Cranial ridges and spines strong, 

 the postocular, nuchal, and coronal spines present. Peritoneum, black. 

 Mouth cavity, white. The second anal spine enlarged. Color, red. 



Specific description : Depth, 2f in length; head, 2i. Pores oflat. 1. 

 29. d! XIII, 13 or 14; A. Ill, 6. L. 12 inches. 



Mouth large, the maxillary nearly reaching vertical from posterior 

 margin of orbit, 2| in head, its width equaling diameter of pupil. Man- 

 dible, laterally as well as in front, largely shutting within the wide 

 premaxillary band of teeth. Bauds on vomer and palatines also wide. 

 Eye large, SJ in head, much longer than snout or than interorbital space. 

 Tnterorbital space narrow, somewhat concave, with a pair of strong 

 ridges, its width half diameter of orbit. 



Cranial ridges sharp, compressed, somewhat as in S. rosaceus, the 

 preocular not specially prominent. Kasal, preocular, supraocular, post- 

 ocular tympanic, occipital, nuchal, and usually coronal spines present. 

 Preopercular spines regularly radiating, the upper four more nearly 

 equal than usual. Preorbital wider, its least width two-fifths pupil, 

 with two strong triangular spines, directed downwards and backwards. 

 Gill-rakers slender, the longest little more than one-third of eye. 



Dorsal spines strong, not high, the longest 2i in head, the twelfth 

 about one-third its height. Soft rays lower than spines. Caudal 

 slightly emarginate. Second anal spine very strong, much longer and 

 stronger than third, and about equaling in length the soft rays, its 

 length about 2i iu head. Veutrals reaching to or slightly beyond vent. 

 Pectorals to front of anal. 



Scales very rough-ctenoid, those of lateral line enlarged, covering 

 breast, branchiostegal rays, mandible, maxillary, and part of snout; 

 everywhere rough. Fins enveloped iu a more or less lax membrane, 

 invested with fine ctenoid scales. 



Color: Uniform red, light below. A narrow black streak along edge 

 of spinous dorsal, the triangular incised portions of membrane above it 

 white. A similar mark between second and third anal spines. Fins 

 otherwise unmarked. 



From stations 2948 and 2960, in 266 and 267 fathoms. 



