Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1501 



snout. Color silvery; an inky blotch on the middle of the anal fin, and a 

 fainter blotch on the spinous dorsal; front of anal yellow; fins otherwise 

 plaia ; axil black. Length 6 inches. San Francisco to Point Conception ; 

 rather rare; locally abundant at Santa Cruz, (analis, pertaining to the 

 anal.) 



Hyperprosopon analis, ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, Proc. Boat. Soc. Nat. Hist.,vm, 1861, 133, 



San Francisco. 



Hypocritichthyg analis, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 276. 

 Ditrema anale, GtfNTHER, Cat., iv, 250. 

 Holconotus analis, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 996. 

 Hyperprosopon analis, EIGENMANN & ULREY, I. c., 387. 



604. HYPERPROSOPON, Gibbons. 

 (WALL-EYED SURF-FISHES.) 



Hyperprosopon, GIBBONS, Daily Placer Times and Transcript, May 18, 1854 (argenteus). 

 Ennichthys, GIRARD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1855, 322 (megalops). 

 Bramopsia (AGASSIZ MS.) ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vm, 1861, 132 

 (mento argenteus). 



Body ovate, strongly compressed ; eyes large; mouth small, very oblique, 

 with 2 rows of teeth in each jaw; lower lip without frenum; gill rakers 

 very long, slender and tapering. Pharyngeal teeth mostly small, conic, a 

 few in the last series enlarged or molar; scales small, silvery; male with 

 1 of the anterior rays of anal transformed into a triangular plate, the 

 fin forming a decided angle at this point, the rays in front of it with a 

 thick covering of skin. Vertebrae 33 to 35, 12 to 14 of them above base 

 of anal. Species of moderate size, living in the surf, (vitep, above; 

 , face, the forehead facing upward.) 



a. Ventral fins broadly tipped with black; anal rays III, 33, the fin nearly plain; sides 



silvery; anterior profile of head concave. ARGENTEUS, 1886. 



aa. Ventral fins plain silvery; anal rays III, 30, the fin blackish anteriorly; sides with 



faint dark cross bands. AGASSIZII, 1887. 



1886. HYPERPROSOPON ARGENTEUS, Gibbons. 



(WALL-EYED SURF-PISH ; WHITE PERCH.) 



Head 3|; depth 2. D. IX, 27; A. Ill, 32; scales 72. Body ovate, 

 strongly compressed. Interorbital space rather wide, abruptly depressed 

 at the nape, the profile of the snout extending for ward at a less angle than 

 that of the back. Snout very short, much shorter than the eye. Maxil- 

 lary scarcely reaching front of pupil. Mouth extremely oblique. Eye 2| 

 in head, larger than in any other species. Gill rakers as long as diameter 

 of pupil and very slender, about 21 below the angle. Middle dorsal spines 

 a little higher than the last, or than the soft rays; anal low; pectorals 

 scarcely reaching to the tips of ventrals, which reach past the front of the 

 anal ; origin of ventral spine 5 or 6 scales behind the vertical from poste- 

 rior end of pectoral base. Color, bluish black above ; sides bright silvery, 

 sometimes faintly barred ; ventrals with a broad terminal bar of black ; 



