Jordan and Evcrmann. Fishes of North America. 1413 



Subgenus ATRACTOSCION, Gill. 

 1789. CYNOSC10N NOBILIS (Ayres). 

 f" WHITE SEA BASS" OF CALIFORNIA.) 



Head 3? ; depth 4. D. X-I, 21 to 23; A. II, 9; scales 12-88-14, pores 70 

 to 80. Head pointed, subconical, little compressed; profile rather steep; 

 snout sharp, rather long, 3| in head ; maxillary extending beyond pupil, 

 anteriorly on a level with the lower margin of the pupil, 2 in head; 

 canines small, becoming obsolete with age; lateral teeth of lower jaw not 

 much enlarged; pharyngeals long and slender, with 4 series of teeth, the 

 inner series several times larger than the rest; gill rakers short, 2 + 7; 

 scales very small, those on head little embedded and less silvery than in 

 related species; maxillary with a few embedded scales; scales on snout 

 running to its tip; caudal lunate, its middle rays less than length of 

 head; both anal spines evident, the second about \ length of the rays; 

 pectoral fins rather long, more than \ head; soft dorsal and anal scaleless. 

 Color bluish, little silvery; everywhere punctulate; young with 3 or 4 

 distinct dusky cross bars; axil and fins dusky; a dusky blotch at base of 

 pectoral, extending on whole inner face of the fin ; scales of side of head 

 not silvery. Coast of California, north to San Francisco, occasionally 

 straying farther; a specimen once taken near Victoria by Mr. Ashdown 

 Green. A most valuable food-fish, reaching a weight of 80 pounds or 

 more, its flesh firm and rich. The banded young ( calif orniensis) are quite 

 different in appearance and are taken for a distinct species by fishermen 

 as they have been by Steindachner. (nobilis, noble.) 



Jnhltius nobilis, AYRES, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1860, 78, San Francisco. (Coll. Ayres.) 

 Otolithus calif ornieng is, STEINDACHNER, Ichth. Heitr., in, 31, 1875, San Diego, Cali- 

 fornia, and Magdalena Bay, Lower California ; young with dark bands. 

 Cynoscion nobili*, JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1880, 456. 

 Atractoscion nobilis, JORDAN <fe GILBERT, Synopsis, 579 and 933, 1883. 

 Cestreus nobilis, JORDAN & EIGENMANN, I. c., 370, 1889. 



1790. CYSOSCIOX PHOXOCEPHALUS, Jordan & Gilbert. 



Head 3; depth 4 to 4; eye 7| in head. D. IX-1, 21; A. Ill, 10; scales 

 17-90-15, pores about 80. Body not very elongate, fusiform, little com- 

 pressed, the greatest thickness nearly the greatest depth ; back scarcely 

 elevated nor compressed, the profile from the snout to the front of the dor- 

 sal nearly straight ; head conical, little compressed, pointed in profile, taper- 

 ing with much regularity toward the tip of the projecting lower jaw; 

 length of mandible more than $ that of head ; mouth large, very oblique, 

 the premaxillary in front on the level of the upper part of the orbit, the 

 broad maxillary extending to below the posterior margin of the eye, 2 in 

 head. Teeth in narrow, cardiform bands in each jaw, the bands composed 

 of about 2 series in front, growing narrow laterally, and finally forming 

 a single series; teeth subequal, with the exception of about 2 pairs in the 

 front of the upper jaw. the posterior pair being developed as small 

 canines directed inward and backward; canines proportionately larger 



