Girard on Fishes of California. 537 



Plate XXIV, fig. 5, represents, size of life, the species 

 now described. Fig. 6 is a magnified scale from the dorsal 

 zone. 



II. GASTEROSTEIMG. 



7. GASTEROSTEUS PLEBEIUS, Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 



VII. 1854, 147. 



Locality. Petaluma, Sonoma Co. 



III. ATHERINIMS. 



8. ATHERINOPSIS CALIFORNIENSIS, Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Philad. VII. 1854, 134, 141, 151. 

 Atherina Storeri, Atres, Ms. 



Plate XXIV, figs. 1-4. 



Description. The body is very much compressed, rather 

 slender in its general appearance, and gracefully subfusi- 

 form. The greatest depth, taken immediately in advance 

 of the origin of the ventrals, is contained about seven times 

 in the total length ; the least depth, on the peduncle of the 

 tail, is about half of the greatest. The head is proportion- 

 ally small, slightly convex above, and sub-quadrangularly 

 pyramidal, though the sides slope inwardly downwards, 

 thus rendering the inferior plane much narrower than the 

 upper. The snout itself is subconical in its retracted state. 

 Protractile to a certain degree, the mouth, which is moder* 

 ate in size, preserves nevertheless its horizontal gape ; it is 

 the only portion of the head, the preorbital region included, 

 which is deprived of scales, and hence perfectly smooth. 

 The teeth are very exiguous, of the velvet-like type. The 

 tongue is narrow, anteriorly rounded, and perfectly smooth. 

 The anterior nostril is situated midway between the ante- 

 rior rim of the orbit and the extremity of the snout. The 

 eye is subcircular and of moderate size ; its horizontal 

 diameter enters about four times and a half or a little more 



JOURNAL, B. S. N. H. 69 



