1828 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



illary extending to beyond pupil, 2 in head; lower jaw very slightly pro- 

 jecting, the symphysis not produced; premaxillary scarcely below eye. 

 Cranial ridges higher than in any other species, their spines blunt, the 

 ridges arranged in 2 nearly parallel series as in S. serriceps, the surface of 

 the larger ones roughened by accessory spinous tubercles as in S. ruber- 

 rimus; occipital ridges very high; skin covering cranial ridges thin or 

 obsolete, not lax; interorbital space sparsely scaled, very narrow, its 

 breadth a little more than \ diameter of eye, with very strong frontal 

 ridges, which are not covered by the scales ; jaws naked ; preorbital broad, 

 a low ridge extending along its surface and that of the suborbital ; this 

 ridge, somewhat rough and not covered with the scales, is continuous 

 with the short suboribital stay ; preopercular spines short, very blunt, 

 the opercular spines very strong; scapular spines moderate. Gill rakers 

 short and stout, clavate, the longest nearly i the diameter of the eye. 

 Dorsal spines rather high and strong, the longest 2 in head, about as high 

 as soft rays, the fin not deeply emarginate ; caudal fin rounded ; anal fin 

 high, its second spine 2- in head, higher and much stronger than the third; 

 pectorals broad, fan-shaped, 3| in length, their base \ broader than the 

 diameter of the orbit, their tips not quite reaching tips of ventrals. Scales 

 rough. Base of skull nearly straight; interorbital space concave and 

 narrow, about 6 in base of skull; process of mesethmoid directed nearly 

 horizontally (in an old specimen) ; ventral process of basisphenoid well 

 developed ; cranial ridges very strong and high ; interorbital space widen- 

 ing quite markedly backward, parietals meeting in middle lines. Bright 

 orange red, with 5 jet-black vertical bars, overlaid with bright red; these 

 bars comparatively narrow, none of them wider than eye; 1 at beginning 

 of dorsal, extending downward on opercle and scapular region; a second, 

 broader one, under middle of spinous dorsal; a third under posterior part 

 of spinous dorsal; the fourth narrower, under front of soft dorsal; the fifth 

 under middle of soft dorsal, all of these extending on the dorsal fin; 2 

 oblique black bands from eye, downward and backward across cheek; 

 another upward and backward toward the nape ; fins uniform deep orange, 

 anal and ventrals tipped with blackish; mouth red; peritoneum white. 

 Length 2 feet. Pacific coast of America, from Monterey to Vancouver 

 Island, in deep water; very rare southward; occasionally about the Faral- 

 lones, where the specimens here described were taken ; rather common in 

 the straits of Juan $e Fuca ; a large and singular species, the most strik- 

 ing in color of the group, and scarcely less beautiful than Sebastodes rubri- 

 rinctas. It is evidently closely related to Sebastodes scrriceps. (nicjer, black ; 

 cinctus, girdle.) 



Sebastes nigrocinctus, AYRES, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., n, 1859, 25 and 217, fig. 6, San Francisco. 

 Sebastichthys nigrotinctus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 278. 

 Sebastodes nigrocinctus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 677, 1883. 



NOTE. For purposes of comparison we here append diagnoses of the 

 -'remaining known species of Selastodes. 



