Jordan and Evcrmann. Fishes of North America. 3179 



and more distiuct posteriorly; 2 pinkish spots on the dorsal side of the 

 caudal peduncle, and a faint shading of the same color on side of head 

 and along anterior fourth of lateral line; entire under surface dull brown, 

 tinged with olive ; rins indistinctly barred with grayish white ; tail faintly 

 tinged with pink. In some specimens the color is an almost uniform dull 

 brown while in others the light markings are prominent. .Some young 

 individuals from among the green algae are uniform light green. 



The bluutness of the snout and preopercular spines, and the terminal 

 mouth make this species easily distinguishable from all related forms 

 except B. ylobiceps, from which it is separated by the shape and size of its 

 preopercular and nasal spines, the number of its cirri, 12, and the size of 

 its mouth. The adults of these 2 species can be readily distinguished, but 

 the young of B. recalvus is very similar to the young of B. ylobiceps, indi- 

 cating that B. globiceps is probably the ancestral form. Girard's old descrip- 

 tion of Oligocottus ylobiceps has been erroneously associated with this fish, 

 which does not extend so far north as the type locality of B. ylobiceps. B. 

 recalvus is distributed from San Diego to Santa Cruz, where it is immedi- 

 ately succeeded by B. globiceps on the north. No specimens of B. recalvus 

 have been taken north of the region of Santa Cruz. On the other hand, 

 several specimens of B. ylobiceps have been collected on the coast of Mon- 

 terey County south of Monterey Bay, therefore within the range of B. 

 recalvus. The relations between the two species where their ranges over- 

 lap is still to be made out. B. recalvus is quite common throughout its 

 range and everywhere inhabits the deep shaded tide-pools, near low water 

 mark, where a large number will often be found in a single pool. (Greeley.) 

 (recalvus, bald in front.) 



Centridennichthys globiceps, GUNTHER, Cat., n, 171, I860; not of Girard. 



Oligocottus globiceps, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 7l 1883. 



Blennicottus globiceps, JORDAN & STARKS, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1895, 808; JORDAN & EVER- 



MANN, Fishes of North and Middle America, n, 2017, 1898; not Oligocottus globicep* 



Girard. 



Blennicottus recalvus, GREELEY, Bull. U. S. Fish Com. 1899 (Dec. 13, 1899), 9, fig. 1, 

 Pacific Grove, Cal. (Type, No. 6068, L. S. Jr. Univ. Mus. Coll. Greeley <fe Cowles.) 



746 (a). RUSCICULUS, Greeley. 



Eusciculus, GREELEY, Bull. U. S. Fish Com. 1899 (Dec. 13, 1899), 13 (rimensis). 



This genus is allied to Oxy coitus, differing in the presence of minute 

 prickly scales, which cover dorsal half of body. Preopercular spine sim- 

 ple, sharp. No slit behind the last gill, (ruscum, the butcher's broom, a 

 rough-skinned plant.) 



2384 (a). RUSCICULUS RIMENSIS, Greeley. 



Head 3i; eye 4 in head; snout 3$ in head; D. IX-17 or 18; A. 14; P. 14; 

 V. 1, 3. Body compressed, very slender, the caudal peduncle especially 

 so; head compressed, flat; snout pointed; interorbital space eye, 

 grooved; top of head flat and slightly concave; nasal spines large, 

 blunt, snout abruptly decurved below them. Dorsal half of body cov- 

 ered with minute, embedded, prickly scales partially arranged in obscure 

 Bull. No. 47, pt. 4 X 



