542 Girard on Fishes of California. 



14. PLEURONICHTHYS GUTTULATUS. Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sd 



Philad. VIII. 1856, 137. 



Plate XXV, fig. 1-4. 



Description. The body is subelliptical, deeper than in 

 P. ccenosus. The figure will show its outline better than 

 any description could do. Needless to say that it is very 

 thin. 



The head is of moderate size and constitutes about the 

 fourth of the total length. The eyes situated on the right 

 side, are well developed, elliptical, their longitudinal diam- 

 eter being contained three times in the length of the side 

 of the head. The interocular space is exceedingly narrow 

 and raised, ridge-like, above the surface of the head. The 

 snout is very blunt and short, the mouth small, with its 

 gape oblique upwards, and both jaws even. The poste- 

 rior extremity of the maxillary corresponds to a vertical line 

 drawn midway between the anterior rim of the orbit and 

 the pupil. The opercular apparatus and cheeks are scaly ; 

 the branchial fissures moderate and not continuous under 

 the throat. 



The origin of the dorsal fin corresponds to a vertical line 

 drawn immediately in advance of the pupil ; it is gradu- 

 ally increasing in height to the line of the greatest depth of 

 the body to diminish again gradually posteriorly, terminat- 

 ing at a small distance from the base of the caudal. The 

 anterior margin of the anal corresponds to a vertical line 

 drawn immediately behind the base of the pectorals. It is 

 shaped like the dorsal, and terminates evenly with that fin. 

 The caudal, which enters about five times in the total 

 length, is rounded upon its posterior margin. The origin 

 of the ventrals is situated in advance of the base of the pec- 

 torals, in advance even of the posterior edge of the opercu- 

 lar apparatus ; they are small and sublanceolate ; their 

 posterior extremity overlaps the vent and reaches the anal 



