SPAROID FISHES OF AMERICA AND EUROPE. 537 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF MEDIALUNA. 
a. Body ovate-elliptical, its outlines regular; head bluntish, rounded, the profile 
strongly convex; maxillary narrow, not reaching front of eye; preorbital nar- 
row; eye small, 1} in snout, 5 in head; mouth small, terminal, horizontal; jaws 
with broad bands of slender teeth, the outer compressed, narrowly lanceolate, 
without evident roots behind; outer teeth similar, growing smaller backward, 
all somewhat movable; vomer, palatines, and tongue with patches of minute 
teeth; gill-rakers slender, rather long; preopercle entire. Dorsal spines low, 
the middle spines highest, scarcely longer than eye; soft dorsal low, not ele- 
vated in front, little higher than spines; anal low; caudal lunate, the upper 
lobe slightly longer; pectorals short and narrow; ventrals rather small; scales 
thinnish, adherent, with smaller ones intermixed; sides, top of head, and 
jaws closely scaled; head 32 in length, depth 24; D. 1x, 1, 22; A. wu, 19 
Seales 9-58-12. Color blackish, with steely luster, paler, and often mottled 
below; sides with faint oblique vertical lines of spots; fins blackish. 
CALIFORNIENSIS, 154. 
154. MEDIALUNA CALIFORNIENSIS. (Medialuna.) 
Scorpis californiensis Steind., Ichth. Beitr., rit, 19, 1875 (San Diego); Jordan & Gil- 
bert, Syn. Fish. N. A., 1888, 562, and elsewhere. 
Cesiosoma californiense Jordan, Cat. Fish. N. A., 1885, 92. 
Habitat: Coast of southern California, from Point Concepcion south- 
ward. 
Etymology: From California. 
This handsome fish is abundant on the rocky coasts of southern 
California. It reaches a length of about a foot, and is a food-fish of 
good quality. 
