98 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
caudal fin is moderately long and somewhat pointed, the longest rays being in the 
lower half of fin and much shorter than the head. Pigmentation has advanced little 
since a length of 7 millimeters was attained. A few additional dusky mark in gs have 
appeared along the black lateral stripe, and the dusky markings on the head and back 
have increased somewhat in number and intensity (fig. 38). 9 
This species remains notably more slender than C. regalis, and the head is lower, 
and the snout more pointed (the depth in the former is contained 3.8 to 4.2 in the 
length and in the latter 2.95 to 3.0 times). The caudal fin is less sharply pointed and 
the rays are shorter than in C. regalis. The differences in color remain about as in 
7-millimeter specimens. Although C. regalis now has a few dusky spots on the sidp 
and the back, they are not arranged in definite series. The characteristic dusky spot 
near the middle of the base of the anal remains in that species, and in some specimens 
a smaller one precedes it and another one follows it. No black spots occur on the 
base of the anal in C. nebulosus. 
Specimens 16 to 20 millimeters long. — The body is quite slender and moderately 
compressed, the shape being close to that of the adult. The head is long and low, 
its length being contained 2.7 to 3.0 times in the standard length, and the greatest 
depth of the body 3.9 to 4.15 times. The snout is rather long and pointed, its length 
is contained 3.5 times in the head, and the eye 4.0 to 5.0 times. The mouth has ac- 
quired virtually the shape and position it has in adult fish. It is somewhat oblique, 
the gape anteriorly is scarcely above the lower margin of the pupil, and the maxillary 
reaches nearly opposite the posterior margin of the eye, its length being contained 2.2 
to 2.8 times in the head. Scales are evident on the middle of the side from the shoul- 
der nearly to the base of the caudal at a length of 16 millimeters; at a length of 20 
millimeters the body is almost fully scaled. The spinous dorsal has increased greatly 
in height since a length of 12 millimeters was attained, and the longest spines are as 
long as the snout, therefore, proportionately about as long as in the adult. The 
caudal fin remains somewhat pointed and the longest rays are about as long as the 
head without the snout. The ventral fins have increased greatly in length since the 
fish attained a length of 12 millimeters, and now are fully twice as long as the eye. 
When the fish reach a length of about 16 millimeters the black lateral line, present 
in smaller fish, disappears or becomes laid over gradually by an indefinitely outlined 
dark band composed of numerous minute brownish or dark markings which extend 
forward on the side of the head and snout (quite indefinite on the head in some speci- 
mens), and backward on about the basal half of the caudal fin. Dark dots on the 
head and back have become much more numerous and those on the back form more 
— 
8 The criticisms pertaining to Pearson’s figure 24 (1928, p. 179), set forth in footnote 8, in general apply to his figure 25, with the 
addition that the origin of the spinous dorsal, which is shown as having its origin over the pre-opercular margin, actually has its origin 
slightly behind the vertical from the base of the pectoral, according to specimens from North Carolina as well as from Texas, which 
the writers were able to examine. 
