[9] REVIEW OF THE SCI^ENID^E. 351 



vv. Chin with two short barbels, none on 

 sides of mandible ; soft dorsal with 



37 to 40 rays Lonchurus, 23. 



bb. Lower pharyngeals very large, completely united, covered with coarse blunt 



paved teeth; lower jaw included; 

 snout with slits aud pores, as in 

 Sciama; gill-rakers rather short. 

 w. Lower jaw with numerous barbels 

 along the inner edge of the rami; 

 preopercle nearly entire. (Marine spe- 

 cies.) POGONIAS, 24. 



ww. Lower jaw without barbels; pre- 

 opercle obscurely serrate. (Fluviatile 

 species.) Aplodlnotus, 25. 



aa. Dorsal spines close together, the first spine attached to the first interneural, and 



from 5 to 12 of the spine-bearing in- 

 terneurals wedged in between the 

 high occipital crest and the neural 

 spine of the second vertebra on the 

 one hand, and that of the third verte- 

 bra on the other; occipital crest much 

 elevated. Vertebra} 10 -f- 14. 



x. Mouth small, low, included, the teeth subequal, in villiform bands; air-bladder 



simple ; preopercle with its membra- 

 nous edge serrulate ; gill-rakers short • 

 snout above premaxillary with slit and 

 pores essentially as in Scicena ; anal 

 fin small ; soft dorsal very long, of 36 

 to 55 rays Eqoes, 26. 



Genus I.— SEKIPHUS. 



Seriphus Ayres, Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sci., ii, 80, 1861 {politM). 



Type : Seriphus politus Ayres. 



This genus consists of a single species, abundant on the California 

 coast. 



It is one of the most aberrant genera in the family — as compared with 

 the typical scisenoid forms, standing at the farthest possible extreme 

 from Eques, Pogonias, and Menticirrhus. 



ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF SERIPHUS. 



a. Body moderately elongate, compressed; profile slightly depressed over the eyes; 

 eyes large, 4 \ in head; snout projecting, 3£ in head ; mouth large and narrow, the lower 

 jaw more or less projecting in the adult ; premaxillary anteriorly about on the level 

 of the lower margin of the pupil ; maxillary 2 in head, reaching to below posterior 

 margin of eye ; lower jaw with a knob at its symphysis which fits in a notch in the 

 upper jaw ; teeth all small, subequal ; those of the lower jaw in a single series, except 

 at the symphysis, where there are two or three series ; those of the upper jaw in two 

 series, the inner ones much recurved ; gill-rakers long and slender, f length of eye, 

 7+16; lower pharyngeals narrow, linear, fragile; scales moderate, weakly ctenoid, 

 those about the head cycloid ; lateral line straight ; dorsal spines weak, the highest 3 

 in hoad ; soft dorsal falcate, the anterior rays much the longer ; anal similar, its base 



