1470 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum, 



1861. MENTICIRRHUS UNDULATUS (Girard). 

 (CALIFORNIA WHITING; SAND SUCKER.) 



Head 4 ; depth 4 to 5 ; eye 7 in head ; snout 3J-. D. X-I, 25 or 26 ; A. 1, 8 ; 

 scales 7-60-11. Mouth smaller, the maxillary reaching scarcely to front of 

 eye, 3^ in head; teeth 011 lower pharyngeals bluntish. Snout long, little 

 projecting; eye small, 2J in snout, 1 in interorbital area; outer teeth in 

 upper jaw moderately enlarged, about as in M. saxatilis; lower pharyu- 

 geals a little broader than in M. americanus, the teeth coarser, and many 

 of them bluntish, none of them really molar, those of the inner posterior 

 corner of the bone much enlarged; highest dorsal spines 1-J- in head, their 

 tips reaching to soft rays; ventrals 1^ in pectorals, which are 1J in head; 

 scales all ctenoid. Color sooty grayish, with bright reflections ; the back, 

 all the fins, and under side of head dusky ; undulating lines along sides 

 running upward and backward, made of dark points in center of each 

 scale; back often with very faint dark cross bars; edge of opercle dusky; 

 lining of gill cavity slightly dusky. Southern California, north to Santa 

 Barbara ; rather common along the sandy coasts ; a food-fish of moderate 

 importance, (undulatus, waved.) 



TTmbrina undulata, GIRARD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. PMla. 1854, 148, San Diego, California 

 (Coll. A Cassidy) ; young individual; GIRARD, U. S. P. R. R. Survey, x, 101, 1858. 



Mentieirrhus undulatus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 578 and 933, 1883 ; JORDAN & EIGEN- 

 MANN, I. c., 432, 1889. 



Subgenus UMBRULA, Jordan <fc Eigemnann. 

 1862. MENTICIRRHUS ELONGIATUS (Giinther). 



(VERRUGATA.) 



Head 3; depth 4f; eye small, 2-J- in snout, 7 in head; snout long, 3 in 

 head. D. X-I, 22 to 24 ; A. 1, 7 ; scales 5-53-13. Upper lobe of caudal longer 

 than lower; scales rather small, about 25 iu an oblique series from vent 

 forward to lateral line ; axillary scale length of pectoral ; snout very little 

 projecting; gill rakers very short, 3 + 5, the longest about -J- diameter of 

 pupil; lower pharyngeal bones narrower than in littoralis, the molar teeth 

 smaller, covering the whole anterior part' of the bone; conical teeth on 

 posterior part of the bone, the outermost row enlarged ; body more elon- 

 gate than in other species; profile low, little convex; mouth small, the 

 maxillary scarcely reaching front of pupil, 3 in head ; second dorsal spine 

 If in head, anterior soft rays of dorsal almost twice as long as the poste- 

 rior ones; caudal with an /-shaped margin; ventrals If in pectorals; pec- 

 torals If in head. Color bluish on sides and back, silvery below, without 

 stripes or bands. Pacific coast of tropical America, Mazatlan to Panama; 

 very common in the surf in shallow water. Its relations are evidently 

 with M. littoralis, but in several respects it represents a transition toward 

 Mentieirrhus undulatus, its nearest relative among the typical Menticirrhi. 

 This relation prevents us from regarding Umbrula as a genus distinct from 

 Mentieirrhus, as its characters would seem to indicate, (elongatus, elongate. ) 



TTmbrina elongata, GUNTHER, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1864, 148, Chiapas; GUNTHER, Fishes 



Central America, 387 and 425, pi. 64, fig. 2, 1869. 

 Mentieirrhus elongatus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 1882, 107 ; JORDAN & 



ElGENMANN, I. C., 432, 1889. 



