APARRIUS 205 



The body rather broad, much compressed from side to side; 

 the ventral profile more arched than the dorsal, which is nearly 

 horizontal, the depth 4 to 4f times in length; the head broad, 

 deep, 3.25 to 3.5 times in length; the short blunt snout descends 

 abruptly, its length 3 to 3 times in head ; the upper lip protrac- 

 tile; the mouth oblique, rather small, the lower jaw included; 

 the posterior angle of maxillary sometimes barely reaches front 

 margin of eye, but usually it extends to middle of eye or even 

 to its posterior margin ; in large males it is broad, the posterior 

 angle very prominent, extending beyond eye; the teeth of upper 

 jaw in two rows, the outer ones gently curved and slightly larger 

 than those of inner row; the lower jaw has two or three rows of 

 teeth, the third row 1 is more or less imperfectly developed; the 

 eyes high up, very close together, laterodorsal, their diameter 

 0.75 of snout or sometimes equal to its length; the interorbital 

 space very narrow, its width or less that of eye; the entire 

 head naked, with no scales forward of dorsal fin or on 

 base of pectoral, except that the sides of nape may be partially 

 scaled; the caudal peduncle contained about twice in greatest 

 depth of body and 2.4 to 3 times in head; the tips of dorsal 

 spines all elongated, those of first five often threadlike and 

 longer than head, reaching to fourth or fifth ray of second 

 dorsal or even upon caudal peduncle when depressed ; the second 

 dorsal rays high, the longest ones greater than depth and ex- 

 tending upon caudal when depressed; the anal is much lower 

 and barely reaches or does not reach caudal when depressed; 

 the caudal elongate, pointed, the central rays much the longest 

 and easily broken, about 2.5 times in length when uninjured, 

 twice in some young specimens; the pectoral a little longer than 

 depth; the ventrals about the same length; both pectorals and 

 ventrals may extend back as far as origin of anal; the anal 

 papilla slender, pointed, almost threadlike. 



The color in alcohol pale yellow, brownish yellow, or gray, 

 with a series of about five dark brown blotches along midlateral 

 line, the last and most conspicuous at base of caudal, and five 

 obscure, double, transverse lines over back ; a small, dark brown 

 spot between each two lateral blotches; two to four transverse 

 brown lines on predorsal region, or the nape marked by spots 

 and vermiculations ; a heavily pigmented blackish spot on top 

 of eye ; a conspicuous brown bar or black line passes from mid- 

 dle of lower rim of eye downward across preopercle to behind 

 angle of mouth; it may be straight or become curved in large 



