Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2431 



about eye and on opercles ; longest dorsal spines 2 to 3 in depth of body, 

 last spines shorter and stiffer than others; dorsal and anal slightly joined 

 to caudal ; pectoral as long as caudal, about 1 in head. Head naked. 

 Brown or grayish, with faint spots or marblings; 1 or 2, rarely 3, dark 

 ocelli on the dorsal; 3 or 4 dark streaks radiating from eye, the upper- 

 most j oining its fellow. Length 10 to 15 inches. Coast of northern Japan 

 and sea of Okhotsk, north to the Kuril Islands. Our specimens, 5 in num- 

 ber, the largest 25 cm. long, from Shana Bay, Iturup Island. Steindach- 

 iier's excellent and detailed description leaves nothing to be desired, and 

 corresponds perfectly with our material except in the character of the 

 scales. A careful examination of these under high magnification fails to 

 show that they are "amhinteren Randemit kurzeii Ziihnchen bewaffnet." 

 The posterior border is entire and the scales strongly marked with con- 

 centric stride. Dorsal spines number 62, 63, 63, 64, 64. Dorsal ocelli pres- 

 ent in all our specimens, 2 of them being faintly visible even in the 

 youngest, 55 mm. long. Pholidapus grebnitskli seems to differ only in the 

 shorter dorsal fin (57 spines). (Named for Professor Dybowski, its first 

 collector.) 



Centronotus dybowskii, STEINDACHNER, Ichth. Beitrage, ix, 22, 1880, Gulf of Strietok, 

 northern Japan (Coll. Prof. Dybowski) ; JORDAN & GILBERT, Kept. Fur Seal Invest., 

 1898. 



? Pholidapus grebnitskii,* EEAX & BEAN, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1896, pi. 34, 390, Yezo, Japan. 

 (Coll. Col. Nicolai A. Grebnitski.) 



915. PLECTOBRANCHUS, Gilbert. 

 Plectobranchus, GILBERT, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1890, 102 (evides). 



Teeth conic, on jaws, vomer, and palatines, some of them canine-like. 

 Body scaly ; lateral line obsolete, its course indicated by a lighter streak 

 on middle of sides. Gill slits not continued far forward, the membranes 



* Pholidapus grebnitskii, Bean & Bean, is thus described: The specimens are 141 mm. 

 long, including caudal; 126 mm. to base of caudal. The head (22 mm.) is equal to the 

 greatest depth of body. The eye is slightly longer than the snout and as long as the 

 head. The interorbital space is narrow, f of the length of the eye. The naked head 

 resembles that of Pholis, its length is contained about 5fc times in total length without 

 the caudal. The mouth is small and very oblique; the mandible is slightly included and 

 has a well developed lip. The maxilla is partly concealed under the preorbital bone ; it 

 does not quite reach to below the anterior margin of the pupil. The anterior nostril is 

 midway between the eye and the tip of the intermaxilla. Seven mucous pores around 

 the orbit ; 3 on the preorbital bone. The pore in the origin of the semicircular dark band 

 around the nape is continued backward by a series of 6 similar ones ending near the 

 upper angle of the gill opening. A series ot 10 or 11 pores beginning near the front ot the 

 chin on each side, extending backward and curving upward to the upper anterior edge ot 

 the operculum. The gill membranes are broadly united, but they are not joined to the 

 isthmus. The dorsal origin ia over the end of the head; the fin is low, and consists ot 

 spines, the longest and strongest in the posterior third being slightly longer than the eye. 

 The distance of the vent from the tip of the snout contains the head length 2f times. 

 The anal is slightly lower than the dorsal, the rays longest posteriorly. Ihe caudal is 

 rounded, and is barely separated from the dorsal and anal. The pectoral base is broad, 

 and the fin is f as long as the head. The intestine is slender, and is more than twice as 

 long as the head. Stomach short, pear-shaped, with 6 slender pyloric caeca ot unequal 

 length, the longest about twice as long as the eye. The body is completely scaled the 

 scales very small, cycloid, closely imbricated, with numerous concentric striae, and they 

 extend halfway up the membrane connecting the dorsal spines. The general body color 

 is brown, the sides sparsely and vaguely mottled. The pectorals are pale. A narrow, 

 dark band extends from the middle of the eye downward and forward, a similar bam 

 running backward from the eye on the preopercle ; an interrupted semicircular band irom 

 eve to eye across the nape. 1). LVII ; A. II, 39 or 40. (The species is named tor Mr. B. 

 Grebnitski, to whose industry and zeal the Museum ia indebted for many valuable col- 

 lections. Bean & Bean. ) 



