2164 Bulletin //, United States National Museum, 



characters, but is very different in appearance; easily distinguished by 

 the form, armature, and coloration of the head, (albus, white; rostrum, 

 snout.) 



Prionotus albirostris, JORDAN & BOLLMAN, Proo. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1889, 168, Pacific Ocean off 

 the coast of Colombia, at Albatross Station 2795, 7 57' N., 78 55' W. (Type, No. 

 41162, U. S. Fat. Mus.) 



2492. PRIONOTUS RTJBIO, Jordan. 



(RUBIO VOLADOR.) 



Head 3; depth 5. D. X-ll; A. 10; scales about 57, pores 52. Body not 

 very slender ; gill rakers very short, tubercle-like, 9 or 10 developed, little 

 if any longer than the interspaces; first dorsal spine nearly smooth; 

 mouth not very large, the maxillary 2 to 2| in head; interorbital space 

 moderately concave, its width about f length of eye; no cirrus above the 

 eye; distance from supraocular spine to nuchal scales about equal to eye; 

 supraocular and nuchal spines low ; occipital spines wanting ; temporal 

 ridge sharp, ending in a blunt spine; preorbital projecting, strongly ser- 

 rate; a blunt spine on each side of snout, behind serrae of preorbital; a 

 blunt spine behind this above angle of mouth ; no spine on cheek bone in 

 adult; upper opercular spine almost obsolete; bones of head rather 

 strongly striate, but not granulate ; scales rather large, about 52 pores ; 

 first dorsal spine not much shorter than second, which is 2 in head; 

 caudal very slightly concave; pectorals longer than in any other species 

 (except alatus), reaching entirely past bases of dorsal and anal, its tip 

 subtruncate, the longest ray about the ninth ; ventrals reaching a little 

 past vent. Color in life, dark olive, with rivulations of light green; sides 

 shaded with pale salmon color ; edge of pectoral light blue, ventrals red- 

 dish; upper fins marked with different shades of brown. From related 

 species, P. rubio is well distinguished by its long pectorals, and by its 

 very short gill rakers, much shorter than in any other species, P. ophryas 

 coming nearest it in this respect. West Indies; not rare; our specimens 

 from Cuba and Jamaica, (rubio , robin, the Spanish name.) 



Rubio volador, PARRA, Descr. Dif. Piezas de Hist. Nat., 1787, lam. 38, Havana. 



Prionotus punctatus, POEY, Synopsis, 304, 1868 ; POKY, Ennumeratio, 41, 1875 ; JORDAN & 



GILBERT, Synopsis, 956; not Trigla punctata of BLOCK. 

 Prionotus rubio, JORDAN, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, 50, Havana (Coll. Jordan); 



JORDAN & HUGHES, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, 334. 



\ 



2493. PRIONOTUS OPHRYAS, Jordan & Swain. 



Head 3 in length (3| with caudal) ; depth 41 (5^) ; eye 4^ in head. D. 

 VIII-13; A. 11; scales (transverse series) about 75; pores in lateral line 

 about 50. Body rather slender, narrower anteriorly and more compressed 

 above than in other species, the width of the nape between the outer pair 

 of occipital spines being. not quite I the length of the head; upper profile 

 of head peculiar, being nearly straight from above front of eye backward, 

 and steep and strongly concave from front of eye to tip of snout, the 

 snout, therefore, steeper, more depressed, and rather shorter than in related 

 species, its length being 2 in head; snout not very broad, its front 



