40 FOSSIL FISHES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



mouth is rather large, its cleft oblique, the outline of the premaxillary 

 slightly convex downward near the tip, otherwise nearly straight, the 

 very tip a little protruding. The form is therefore much as in ATHERINA 

 and HEPSETUS and in general similar to that of the more slender and 

 short-nosed genera among the MELANOT^ENIIN^;. It is quite unilke the 

 American types. 



In its filamentous dorsal spines and in the approximation of the 

 two dorsals, this genus agrees with some of the MELANOT,ENIIN;E of 

 Australia, notably with PSEUDOMUGIL Kner. In another paper written 

 before the discovery of ZANTECLITES, Jordan and Hubbs have regarded 

 the MELANOT^NIIN^: as probably the most primitive of ATHERINID^B. 



The name ZANTECLITES recalls its possible affinity with MIELANO- 

 T^NIA Gill, an Australian genus, of which the -name ZANTECLA Castelnau 

 is a synonym. An account of this genus is given by Jordan and Hubbs 

 in a paper which should soon follow the present one. 



The species is named for Carl Leavitt Hubbs of the Field Museum, 

 who has made a careful study of the type specimen. Mr. Hubbs is 

 himself a graduate of the Los Angeles High School, as well as of 

 Stanford University. 



Family TRACHICHTHYID^. 



35. Eritima evides Jordan and Gilbert, new species. 

 (Plate XXIII, fig. 1) 



A small fish (No. XXXI) about four inches long, with a large head, 

 deep body, and delicate fins, obtained from sandy diatomaceous shales 

 at Bairdstown. 



Head 3*4 in length to base of caudal; depth 3. Body rather 

 deep, compressed; head large; the large mouth oblique, the jaws sub- 

 equal or the lower projecting; teeth rather small, even, but evident; 

 snout bluntish; preopercle strong, entire, the lower limb with fine, 

 sharp, radiating lines ; bones of head slender, unarmed ; opercle obtuse, 

 unarmed. Eye small, the orbit crowned by a slender ridge. 



Vertebrae slender, short, 10 -f- 14 = 24 in number, the neural spines 

 straight, weak, directed backward, the haemal spines rather stronger. 



Dorsal inserted a little nearer tip of snout than base of caudal fin, 

 of about twenty slender rays, none of them appearing spinous, its 

 height half greater than length of its base, and rather less than depth 

 of body; the distal part of the rays filmy and flexible. There may 

 have been another dorsal fin before or behind this, but of this there 

 is no evidence. Anal inserted well forward, nearly under middle of 

 dorsal, its rays about fifteen, all slender, except the first, which is short 

 and spine-like, much shorter than the second, which is the longest and 



