Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1957 



pectorals very conspicuously checkered, the dark and light spots on the 

 rays arranged in vertical scries. A large, strongly marked species, very 

 abundant in Upper Klamath Lake. It is characterized by its short spi- 

 nous dorsal, broadly joined to the long soft dorsal, the uiibranched pectoral 

 rays, the very incomplete lateral line, the weak development of prickles, 

 the. lack of palatine teeth, and the distinctive coloration. It is most 

 nearly related to C. jx-rplcx. Klamath Lakes, Oregon. 



Coitus klaniatlicnsis, GILBERT, Bull. U. S. Fish Comni. 1897, 10, figure, Upper Klamath 

 Lake, Oregon. (Type, No, 48226, U. S. Nat. Mus. Coll. Gilbert, Cramer, and Otaki.) 



2328. OTTUS ALEUT1CUS, Gilbert. 



Head small, 3 to 3; depth 5 to 5$. D. IX or X, 18 or 19; A. 13 or 14; 

 P. 13 to 15; V. I, 4 ; C. 8 or 9 (forked rays) ; 35 to 37 pores in lateral line. 

 In appearance resembling Coitus pMlonips; the head small, its width but 

 greater than its depth ; the body low and but little compressed, the 

 depth at shoulders but little greater than the width. Caudal peduncle 

 moderate, not slender, its length from base of last anal ray If to If in 

 head, measured from last dorsal ray but little more than \ as long. Depth 

 of caudal peduncle 4| to 4 in head. Mouth small, variable, maxillary 

 reaching vertical from front or middle of pupil, 2f to 3 in head. Vomerine 

 patch of teeth small, the palatines toothless. Preorbital as wide as eye, 

 produced anteriorly into a convex lobe, which conceals all but the wid- 

 ened tip of the maxillary ; both pairs of nostrils opening in short but 

 evident tubes, a character not known by us to exist in other species of the 

 genus. Eye 4 to 4f in head; interorbital space narrow, the least width 

 of the bone slightly less than \ the vertical diameter of the orbit in adults 

 160 mm. long, much narrower in younger specimens. In this respect our 

 specimens diifer conspicuously from the types of U. microstoma, in which 

 the interorbital width is said to equal vertical diameter of eye. As in 

 Coitus philonips we have but a single preopercular spine, which is straight 

 and directed obliquely upward; preopercular margin below the spine 

 evenly rounded; subopercular spine well developed. Lateral line com- 

 plete, following outline of back to opposite last dorsal ray, where it 

 abruptly declines to middle of caudal peduncle. Body naked, or with a 

 narrow band of prickles extending from upper axil of pectorals along 

 under side of lateral line. Dorsals more or less joined at base in all our 

 specimens, but varying in the height of the connecting membrane, which 

 usually joins well up on first ray of soft dorsal, sometimes at its extreme 

 base. The spinous dorsal is long, with 9 spines in 13 specimens examined, 

 10 spines in 5 specimens. The first 2 spines are very closely approximated, 

 and spring from a single, wide interspinal; the first spine is easily over- 

 looked, as has been done by Gilbert and Evermann (Investigations in the 

 Columbia River Basin, 1894, p. 54), and possibly also by Lockington in his 

 description of Uranidea microstoma. Spinous dorsal low; the soft dorsal 

 higher, the longest rays equaling length of snout and i eye; the last rays 

 when depressed not quite reaching base of caudal. Anal fin much shorter 

 than soft dorsal, its last ray under the fourth or fifth before the last ray 



