THE TIDE-POOL FISHES OF CALIFORNIA. 
15 
Head 3^; eye 4^ in head; snout 34; D. vm, 18 or 19; A. 13 to 15; P. 13 to 15; V. i, 3. 
Body elongate, slender ; snout pointed, compressed ; minute conical teeth on jaws, vomer, and front 
of palatines; jaws equal; mouth horizontal, maxillary 3 in head, reaching a vertical below anterior 
edge of pupil. Interorbital space live-sixths of eye, shallowly grooved, the groove leading into a 
depressed space between occipital ridges; nasal spines large. Margin of preopercle armed with a 
strong spine, half as long as eye, from upper border of which at base extends a second spine pointing 
abruptly upward and inward; both spines covered with skin in life; margin of opercle ending in a 
pointed flap, entirely unarmed. Branch iostegals 6, the membranes broadly united, free from isthmus. 
Gills 34, a slit behind last gill. 
Dorsal fins large, separated by half diameter of eye, whole length equaling that from caudal to 
base of pectoral; first dorsal beginning slightly in advance of margin of opercle, upper edge nearh 
straight, curving abruptly downward from sixth spine; origin of soft dorsal in advance of anal; pec- 
torals large, reaching well beyond origin of anal; ventrals almost midway between base of pectorals 
and anal; anal fin small, rays all feeble in female, in male the first ray only greatly enlarged, joined 
to second, the two distinctly separated from rest of fin, membranes of all except last three or four 
rays deeply einarginated. Anal papilla small, present in male only. Cirri very numerous, usually 
occurring in hunches of three or four, those of head joined at base, forming a comb; two pairs of 
bunches above orbits, with rudiments of a third bunch in front of these, three on top of head, behind 
orbits, two or three bunches just below these on sides of head, two or three single cirri on margin of 
preopercle, a thick bunch above preopercular spines, four or five on lower margin of opercle, with a 
thick bunch on its upper margin; a short row above base of pectorals; a row of bunched cirri along 
anterior two-thirds of lateral line, another well-defined row along dorsal fin from third spine to six- 
teenth or seventeenth ray of soft dorsal, this row containing a hunch at base of each spine ami ray, 
with the occasional exception of the first ray ; five or six scattered bunches between dorsal and lateral 
rows on each sile of the body ; a cirrus at tip of each dorsal spine. 
Color, light reddish-brown, sometimes almost pink, thickly spotted with fine indistinct white 
spots; four or five irregular dark-brown spots along base of dorsal, a band of same color along lateral 
line, sometimes very much broken and extending ventrally, shading into uniform reddish-brown 
below, and including three or four round pinkish spots; a dark-brown postocular line, another 
running forward from eye, a patch of same color on top of head, another on sides of head, and two 
or three on edge of opercle; throat reddish-brown, with several distinct white spots ; belly bluish- 
green; a silvery white patch between bases of pectorals; dorsal fins pale reddish-brown, with black 
and clear spots; pectorals crossed irregularly with white; anal fin pale pink, crossed with dark 
brown. There are two or three perfectly distinct types of coloration, as follows: Some specimens 
from pools containing green alga? are pure light green ; others from coralline pools are tinged with 
lavender, as B. embryum. 
This species resembles most closely O. maculosus, which name has been erroneously applied to it, 
but it differs markedly in its slenderer body, more pointed snout, the arrangement of its cirri, and the 
perfectly distinct coloration, also in greater length of dorsal fins, the enlargement of only one anal 
ray in male, and shortness of maxillary. 
