Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2409 



brownish, plain or mottled with darker, with about 13 dark blotches along 

 dorsal and anal fins, more distinct on dorsal; a black spot on fourth to 

 sixth dorsal spines very distinct; a faint one on anterior part of anal; a 

 few dark markings about head and nape; cirri mostly pale. Bering Sea, 

 south to Puget Sound and Yezo. Here described from a line specimen, 6 

 inches long, from Port Orchard, near Seattle, collected by Prof. 0. B. John- 

 son. Other specimens before us from St. Paul (Pribilof Islands), from 

 Albatross Stations 3213 and 3274, south and north of the Peninsula of 

 Alaska, and from Petropaulski Harbor, Kamchatka. These specimens 

 show a great deal of variation, and possibly represent 3 different species. 

 It is more likely, however, that they represent extremes of variation. 

 Young examples, collected by the Albatross in eastern Bering Sea, are more 

 elongate and less compressed ; body much mottled and vaguely barred ; 

 ventral fins checkered in fine pattern; head sand color; a black blotch on 

 fourth to sixth dorsal spine; anterior dorsal spine little elevated and with 

 few fringes; sides of head without cirri; anterior cirri joined almost to 

 the tip, a little shorter than the posterior cirri, which are long and 

 very slender. In 1 specimen of these, however, the cheeks are cov- 

 ered with densely matted cirri extending from the angle of the mouth 

 to the dorsal. In these 'examples the anterior cirri are short and sep- 

 arate, about as long as the posterior cirri. The larger example, 75 cm. 

 long, from Petropaulski, is evidently the typical polyactocephalum, and 

 corresponds perfectly to Herzenstein's account of B.japonicum. It shows 

 the following characters: Head 6; depth 5fc. D. LXI; A. 45; P. 14; 

 V. I, 3; lateral series with 6 pores. Body a little deeper than in Puget 

 Sound examples; head short, blunt in profile; mouth short, terminal, 

 oblique, the maxillary 2 in head; lower jaw heavy, projecting, its tip 

 with 2 broad fringed flaps of a dark color; eyes 4 in head, close together, 

 the interorbital space concave ; a fringed cirrus above each eye in front, the 

 2 connected with each other only in the thickened skin at base; a similar 

 cirrus over each eye behind ; the posterior cirri longer than the ante- 

 rior ones, 2 in head; top of head and nape with similar cirri, none of 

 them longer than pupil ; a few small cirri on cheeks and opercles ; some 

 along lateral series of pores, which is 2 in head ; anterior rays of dorsal 

 fringed with fleshy cirri, the first 2 in head ; distance from snout to vent 

 2f in body ; pectorals nearly as long as head, the rays thickened in the 

 adult, the base of the fin about its length. Color very dark brown, with 

 vague cross bands and many spots; dorsal and anal each with a broad 

 black edge; other fins all black, the caudal barred. Perhaps the dark 

 coloration and long cirri are characters of the adult male. (itoXvc,, many ; 

 dutis, ray; %0aA?7, head.) 



Blennius polyactocephalus, PALLAS, Zool. Rosso-Asiat., in, 179, 1811, Kamchatka. 

 Chirolophus japonicus, HERZENSTEIN, Melanges Biologiques Soc. Sci. Petersb., xin, 1890, 



123, Yezo. 

 Chirolophis polyactocephalus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 765, 1883; BEAN in Nelson, 



Kept. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 305, pi. 15, f. 2, 1887. 

 Bryostemma polyactocephalum, JORDAN & STABKS, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1895, 841; JORDAN & 



GILBERT, Kept. Fur Seal Invest., 1898. 

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