Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1901 



body compressed, everywhere much deeper than wide. Mouth slightly 

 oblique, maxillary reaching slightly beyond vertical from front of pupil, 

 83- in head. Jaws and vomcr with rather wide bands of uniform fine teeth ; 

 a small patch on front of palatines; nasal spines strong, fixed; preoper- 

 cular spine strong, simple, directed upward and backward, gently curved; 

 preocnlar margin without further spines or prominences. Opercle thin, 

 without rib or spine; snpraocular rim elevated, projecting above profile 

 of head; interorbital space narrow, deeply channeled, the sides sloping 

 convexly; occiput depressed behind the eyes and transversely rounded, 

 rendering the profile somewhat concave; posteriorly the occiput rises and 

 is literally auguhitcd, somewhat quadrate therefore in cross section; vertex 

 without ridges or spines; supra ocular (lap as long as eye, lanceolate in form, 

 coarsely fringed along the margins ; a pair of broad, deeply cleft fiaps near 

 middle of occiput, and a second pair at posterior edge of occiput; a long 

 nasal cirrus, a series of short filaments a long margin of preopercle,! on sub- 

 orbital stay, 1 near tip of maxillary, a cleft filament near opercular angle, 

 and a series of 4 filaments along middle of lateral line; anterior nostrils 

 in a short tube; gill membranes widely joined across the throat, entirely 

 free from isthmus. Lateral line rising in a high convex curve anteriorly, 

 the curved and straight portions equal; along its course is a series of 44 

 plates, with the upper edge free and spinous, large along the curved por- 

 tion of the line, but diminishing rapidly in size, posteriorly, the free edge 

 becoming smooth or nearly so; a series of much smaller but similar plates 

 lies along base of dorsal, extending halfway along back of caudal peduncle, 

 widening under anterior ha If of spinous dorsal to form a band which nearly 

 fills the space between dorsal and lateral line; skin otherwise entirely 

 naked. Dorsal beginning a pupil's diameter behind occiput. Spines very 

 slender, the anterior ones highest, each crowned with a membranaceousfiap 

 which is digitately cleft ; the third spine longest, - length of head ; the last 

 spine about f the third and \ the succeeding short ray; pectoral rays all 

 simple, the lower thickened with incised membranes, the longest rays 

 reaching vertical from third anal ray; ventrals narrow, reaching front of 

 anal when declined; vent Immediately behind ventral fins, the long anal 

 papilla reaching front of anal fin when declined. Color in spirits, light 

 grayish, olive, a series of 5 irregular quadrate blotches along the back, 

 usually connected at their lower margins; middle of sides with dusky 

 marblings, from the lower edge of which a series of 7 V-shaped black 

 blotches descend toward lower outline ; the dusky marking of sides inclos- 

 ing small round spots of ground color; an oblique dark bar on snout and 

 a black blotch on lower portions of cheek; interopercle and upper 

 branchiostegals with cross series of black spots; pectoral with a large 

 dark blotch and indistinct cross bars on the rays; anal crossed by oblique 

 dark bars; caudal indistinctly cross-barred; dorsals dusky, without defi- 

 nite pattern; ventrals plain. Length 3 inches. Ushishir Island, of the 

 Kuril Group; only the type known, (plumarius, feathery.) 



Archistes plumarius, JORDAN & GILBERT, Fishes of Bering Sea, in Kept. Fur Seal Invest. 

 1896, 1897 MS., Ushishir Island. (Type, in U. S. Nat.Mus. Coll. Jordan ) 



