226 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



or 17; anal 12 to 14; pectoral 14; orbit 4 in head; snout 

 4; maxillary 2f ; highest dorsal spine 3; dorsal ray i\\ 

 caudal ray 1^2; first anal ray 2i}4,6 3; ventrals if; 

 caudal peduncle 3^ ; pectorals 3 in length. 



Body compressed, elongate; back somewhat elevated, 

 deepest below middle of spinous dorsal. Head almost 

 as wide as long, tapering from behind to the somewhat 

 pointed snout; profile of head rounded above, straight 

 below; mouth terminal, nearly horizontal; maxillary ex- 

 tending to vertical through posterior part of pupil; lower 

 jaw included; jaws, vomer and palatines with villiform 

 teeth; snout as long as orbit; eye high in head; inter- 

 orbital space narrower than width of orbit; its concavity 

 angular; opercle with a triangular flap; angle of pre- 

 opercle produced into a forked spine, which is covered 

 with skin, except on the sharp points; prongs of pre- 

 opercular spine half as long as orbit; nasal spines prom- 

 inent; the long premaxillary processes form a sharp ridge 

 between the latter; branchiostegal membranes forming a 

 fold across the isthmus; gills 3^, the slit behind the 

 fourth arch much reduced; pseudobranchia; present; 

 gill-rakers represented by a few protubrances on the arch. 



Skin smooth. Filaments on free end of maxillary, on 

 inferior edge of preopercle, and from first dorsal to the 

 bases of the pectoral fins; also a row of filaments ex- 

 tending along the supraorbital crest, over the back of the 

 head and along the lateral line for about half the length 

 of the body; the filaments are usually paired, i. c, two 

 grow from the same place. Anal papilla prominent. 

 Large mucous pores are scattered about the top and sides 

 of head; pores of lateral line 36 to 40. 



Dorsal fins two, separate; first dorsal 4 in head and 

 body, curving from distal end of first spine to posterior 

 part of base ; spines rather feeble ; second dorsal 2 in 



