26o CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Proc. 3D Ser. 



3. Schedophilus heathii new species. 

 Plate XXVI. 



Type: 84 mm. long; Pacific Grove, California, July 18, 

 1896; collector Harold Heath. 



The type is a young individual, found in company with a 

 jelly-fish, beneath which it was captured. 



From S. lockingtoni it differs widely in all proportions of 

 head and body, and in the striated scales; from S. macula- 

 tus (= S. Tnarmoratus Kner^ it differs in the much more 

 numerous fin rays and in the plain coloration; from S . medu- 

 sophagus in the larger scales, plain coloration, the absence 

 of spines on the opercular bones, the more posterior dorsal 

 fin, and in other respects. 



D. 9+35; A. 28; P. 21; V. I, 5. Scales in course of lateral line 116 or 

 118. 



Length of head 2^^ in length to base of caudal; greatest depth 2f ; least 

 depth (at caudal peduncle) \ the greatest depth. The eye is large, with 

 prominent supraorbital ridge, its diameter contained 3f times in length of 

 head. The lower jaw is shorter than the upper, included within the premax- 

 illaries both laterally and at the symphysis. The mouth is moderately oblique, 

 the premaxillaries anteriorly on the level with lower margin of orbit, the 

 maxillary slightly decurved toward its extremity, wholly concealed beneath 

 the preorbital, the tip reaching the vertical from the posterior margin of the 

 pupil. The teeth are perfectly straight, very sharp and slender, in a single 

 series in each jaw; the vomer and palatines are toothless. 



The snout is blunt and heavy, the interorbital region broad, flattened trans- 

 versely. From its posterior line rises a high occipital crest, which is contin- 

 uous with the sharply compressed basal area of the dorsal fin. None of the 

 bones of the head bear conspicuous spines. The preopercle and opercle are 

 marked with faint striae, which end at the margins of these bones in scarcely 

 distinguishable spinous points. 



The bases of the dorsal and anal fins are very closely compressed; the 

 basal bones of the fins readily visible. The origin of the dorsal fin falls ver- 

 tically over a point midway between insertion of ventrals and origin of anal 

 fin. It is there wholly behind the head, and over the middle of the length of 

 the pectoral fin. The anterior rays are not sharply differentiated from the 

 remainder of the fin. The first 9 are short, with few articulations, and 

 increase in length very slowly. Behind these, the rays grow rapidly longer, 

 are slenderer, more closely set, and have more numerous articulations. The 

 origin of the anal fin is under the thirteenth or fourteenth ray of the dorsal, 

 the 2 fins terminating posteriorly at the same vertical. The anterior anal 

 rays seem not at all differentiated from the others. The ventrals are inserted 

 under the middle of the pectoral base, their tips reaching slightly more than 

 half way to origin of anal fin. The ventral spine is very slender and flexible, 



