1188 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



506. CRATINUS, Steindachner. 



Craiinus, STEINDACHNER, Ichthyol. Beitrage, vir, 19, 1878, (agcassizii). 



Body subfusiform, moderately compressed; the head long and low; 

 cranium essentially as in Serranus, the smooth area above very large, 

 longer than the low and short supraoccipital crest. Lower jaw much 

 projecting. Canines small. Scales small and rough. Gill rakers mod- 

 erate. Dorsal spines very unequal, most of them attenuated into long 

 filaments without dermal appendage. Caudal slightly lunate. East 

 Pacific. This genus is related to Paralabrax,* differing in the form of 

 the head and in the prolongation of most of its dorsal spines, which 

 are attenuated into filaments without dermal appendage. One species 

 known, a fish with a very peculiar physiognomy. (Name unexplained; 

 perhaps from crates, a bundle of rods.) 



1578. CRATINUS AGASSIZII, Steindachner. 



Head to end of the opercular flap 2g in length; depth 4. D. X, 12; 

 A. 111,7; eye 9 in head; snout 2; maxillary 2i; pectoral 2; ventrals 

 slightly shorter; longest ray of soft dorsal 3; second anal spine 5; 

 scales 9-68-22. Body elongate, not much compressed; profile gently 

 curved from tip of snout to dorsal; snout long and pointed; mouth large, 

 not very oblique; maxillary extending to posterior margin of eye; lower 

 jaw strongly projecting; teeth moderate, in several irregular series; 

 nostrils equal, nearly round, the space between them as great as their 

 diameter, the anterior one with a flap on its posterior margin ; eye small, 

 set high in the head; interorbital shallowly and evenly concave; supra- 

 occipital ridge extending nearly to upper angle of opercle; rounded pos- 

 terior limb of preopercle finely serrate, lower limb entire; opercle with a 

 broad, flat spine, behind which is a large flap. Gill rakers moderate, 

 rather slender, 3 ~f 9, with 3 or 4 rudimentary ones. Snout, preorbital^ 

 interorbital, and upper edge of maxillary with a few scattered, partially 

 embedded scales, with much naked skin between ; lower part of maxil- 

 lary and lower jaw naked; cheeks closely set with small scales, opercles 

 with much larger ones ; many accessory scales on head. Scales on body 

 large, without accessory scales ; a few small scales running up 011 base of 

 soft dorsal; all scales on body and head ctenoid. First dorsal spine 

 short, not much longer than eye, the second slightly longer : third, fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth extremely long, longer than head, and reaching to the 

 middle of soft dorsal, the rest not elongate ; soft dorsal moderately high, 

 the first rays the longest; second anal spine about twice as long and 

 much stouter than first, third slender, a little longer than second, and 

 closely united to first anal ray, the middle rays the longest, twice as long 

 as second spine, fin rounded behind ; pectorals broad, the middle rays 

 longest, the fin bluntly rounded behind, reaching a little past ventrals ; 

 caudal fin shallow-lunate. Color in spirits : Snout and upper parts dark 



* Dr. Boulenger is certainly in error in referring this species to his subgenus Serranus. 







