Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2051 



ing; upper edge of maxillary slipping under proorbital for its whole 

 length, its posterior end midway between tip of snout and middle of eye ; 

 villiform teeth on jaws and vonier, none apparently on palatines; lower 

 jaw with a fleshy tip, scarcely produced into a "barbel, scarcely as long as 

 diameter of pupil; suprnorbital rim prominent, making the iuterorbital 

 space deeply concave; width of the latter about eye; 2 ridges from the 

 inner edges of supraorbital rim run backward, and are continuous with 

 dorsal ridges of body; edge of preoperelr with \\ spines, the middle one the 

 largest. Two large median plates in front of ventrals on breast, a row of 

 plates along each lateral ridge of breast, a large plate on each side of the 

 union between first and second median plates, and behind them a row of 

 small plates irregular in size and position, sometimes continuous and inter- 

 posed between median and lateral plates, and sometimes allowing the 

 edges of median and lateral plates to touch; 11 or 12 plates in front of 

 dorsal; spinous dorsal on 9 or 10 plates, counting to end of membrane ; 

 lateral line 43. Space between dorsal ridges strongly concave, the ridges 

 coming together on caudal peduncle, but not uniting, continuing parallel 

 for a short distance and then becoming obsolete; upper lateral ridge end- 

 ing anteriorly on about the twelfth plate from head. Last rays of dorsal 

 and anal connected to the body by a membrane; space between dorsals 

 about equal to the width of a plate; front of anal midway between pos- 

 terior end of maxillary and base of caudal; pectoral reaching just past 

 front of spinous dorsal ; vent distant an eye's diameter from base of ven- 

 trals; length of caudal equal to head behind anterior ridge of pupil. 

 Color blackish, with fine pnnctnlations; bell} 7 white ; a light streak run- 

 ning backward from eye to upper edge of gill opening; below this an area 

 scarcely so wide as eye, darker than the rest of body, its lower edge 

 sharply denned against the white under parts of head; chin black; dor- 

 sals and caudal dusky; pectorals light, the rays with many black spots 

 which do not involve the membrane; ventrals and anal white. This 

 species differs from Pallasina barbata in having a much shorter barbel on 

 chin, in having 2 median plates in front of ventrals in place of 3, and in 

 having the plates between the median and lateral plates much smaller 

 and less regular in arrangement. In P. barbata these plates are about as 

 large as the median plates and always interposed between them and lat- 

 eral plates, the arrangement being constant. The abdominal ridges are 

 generally closer together in P. aix than in the northern species. Puget 

 Sound to the Aleutian * Islands ; taken with the seine in great abundance 

 in Puget Sound, near Port Ludlow ; the largest nearly 5 inches in length, 

 the others about 3. (ai\, a goat, from the pointed beard, or ai%, a darter, 

 from the slender form.) 



Pallasina aix, STAKKS, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1896, 558, pi. 75, Puget Sound, near Port Lud- 

 low, Washington. (Type, ]STo. 5040, L. S. Jr. Univ. Mus. Coll. E. C. Starks.) 



* Two small specimens were taken by Dr. Gilbert at Chigmk Bay, Alaska. Concerning 

 these he remarks : " We have compared these specimens with the types of Pallasina aix 

 and can find no good differences. One of onr specimens has 3 median plates in the front 

 of the ventrals,' the other 2. (Our specimens of P. barbata have either 3 or 2 median 

 plates in front of the veutrals.) A few of the types have 12 pectoral rays, but the 

 majority have 11. Fin formula: D. VII, 6; A. 10; P. 12. D. VII, 6; A. 9; P. 12." 



