ABOMA 203 



short, no fleshy flaps on shoulder girdle, and no silklike rays on 

 pectoral. 



Species rather numerous in Japan and several from the west 

 coast of Mexico ; all of them are small fishes of mottled coloration. 



95. ABOMA VIGANENSIS (Steindachner) 



Gobius viganensis STEINDACHER, Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. 102 1 (1893) 

 230. 



Dorsal VII, 1-9; anal I, 11; there are 28 to 29 scales in a longitudinal, 

 9 in a transverse series. 



The compact body is strongly compressed,, the dorsal profile of the head 

 and back is arched like a bow, ascending to the origin of the first dorsal, 

 moderately so in an example that is 67 millimeters long, very little in one 

 of 48 millimeters, the depth 4 to 45 times in the length; the sides of the 

 head are plump, its length something more than 3.6 times in the total 

 length; the breadth of the head is nearly 1 times, its height about H 

 times in its own length; the snout is about 3.5 times, the rather small 

 oval eyes about 4 times in the head; the interorbital is 0.5 the length of 

 the eye; the mouth is diagonal, the maxillary reaching to a little before 

 the middle of the eye, the length of the gape 5 of the length of the head; 

 there is a broad band of short, tender teeth in each jaw; in front of it in 

 the lower jaw is a short row of widely spaced, much larger, crooked teeth 

 of which the last are most strongly developed and with the points turned 

 backward, as in Rhinogobius caninus; in the upper jaw along the outer 

 margin of the dental band is a row of teeth a little stouter and longer, of 

 which the anterior central ones are a little larger than the lateral ones, 

 which reach back to the middle of the gape; the sides and top of the head 

 are completely scaleless back to the posterior end of the very narrow in- 

 terorbital; the scales on the nape back to the beginning of the first dorsal 

 and laterally to upper margin of the opercle and base of the pectoral are 

 about half as large as the scales on the caudal peduncle ; the large posterior 

 scales, and especially those below the Jbase of the first dorsal back the length 

 of the horizontally laid pectoral have their posterior margin mostly bluntly 

 angular with a sharply distinct angular tip, the rest as a rule with the 

 hind margin weakly arched; the second, third, and fourth spines of the 

 first dorsal have their tips elongated, threadlike, the second longest, nearly 

 equal to the head, the first as long as the head, the last very short; with the 

 exception of the first ray, the second dorsal is of nearly uniform height 

 to the third from the end, which is about If times, the first scarcely more 

 than 3 times, the second contained more than 2.5 times in the head; the 

 anal is of uniform height to the third from the end, which is about .6 the 

 Jength of the head; the depth of the caudal peduncle is twice in the head 

 and somewhat less than twice in the depth of the body; the rounded caudal 

 is a little shorter than the head; the pectoral is about If times in the head; 

 the ventral is more than 15 times in the head, not reaching the anus, and 

 with a broad frenum. 



The ground color of the body is yellowish brown; a small narrow indigo 

 blue stripe along the hind margin of the opercle in the large example, in 

 the smaller it is spread out in spots; the scales on the upper posterior 

 half with small brown spots, forming tolerably regular longitudinal lines; 



