628 ^ NEW SPECIES OF ROCKFISH FROM ALASKA— BEAX. vol. xvii. 



Cranial ridges almost obsolete, except on the occiput, where the 

 spiues are long and depressed, nearly as long as the eye. Preocular 

 and supraocular spines present; no tympanic spines. 



Mouth large, the broadly expanded maxillary reaching beyond the 

 middle of the eye. The length of the upper jaw (iutermaxilla and 

 maxilla) almost one half length of head. The lower jaw much project- 

 ing, its length equaling that of eye and postorbital part of head. The 

 upper half of the maxilla is covered with very fine scales; the mandi- 

 ble also has fine scales along its middle and posterior portions. The 

 mandible has a well-developed knob at the symphysis. The eye is 

 three-fourths as long as the snout, rather more than one-fifth the length 

 of the head, and about equal to the width of the nearly fiat interorbital 

 space. The width of the preorbital is less than one-half the length of 

 tlie eye. The preopercular spines are short and sharp; the second 

 longest, about one-third as long as the eye; the first, fourth, and fifth 

 very small; the jioiuts of the fourth and fifth are directed obliquely 

 downward and backward. The gillrakers are moderately long and 

 slender; eleven above and twenty-three below the angle, the longest at 

 the angle one-half as long as the snout or two-thirds as long as the 

 eye. The scales are small — eighty-six or eighty-seven rows in a longi- 

 tudinal series, only fifty-one of which are pierced by tubes. 



The spinous dorsal is low, the first spine two thirds as long as the 

 second and rather more than two-thirds as long as the eye; the fourth 

 to the sixth spines longest, rather more than one-third length of 

 head. The membrane of the soft dorsal and to some extent that 

 of the spinous dorsal scaly. The longest soft ray of the dorsal is rather 

 shorter than the longest spine; the last soft ray is as long as the first 

 spine. The first anal spine is very short, two-fifths as long as the 

 second, or one-half as long as the eye; the second spine is shorter and 

 stouter than the third, equal to the snout in length; the third spine is 

 nearly one and one-half times as long as the eye. The longest soft ray 

 exceeds the length of the longest dorsal spine and is nearly equal to 

 the postorbital part of the head. The pectorals are shaped very much 

 as in S, proriger; the lower four or five rays are slightly exsertcd at 

 the ends; the middle rays longest, slightly longer than the head with- 

 out the postorbital part. The ventrals do not extend as far back as the 

 pectorals; their distance from the vent equal to half their own length, 

 which is two-fifths the length of head. Peritoneum silvery white. 



D. XIII, 14; A. Ill, 7. 



In ;S^. proriger the second anal spine is distinctly longer than the 

 third; the x>eritoneum is black; a tympanic spine is present; the gill- 

 rakers 40 in number and nnany of them club shaped at the end, the 

 longest rather more than one-half the length of the eye; the foairth and 

 fifth preopercular ^)ines are directed horizontally backward, and the 

 scales are in seventy-five rows. These comparisons are drawn from the 

 type of S. proriger, No. 26980, U.S.N.M. 



