498 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
dusky; no pale spots on body; tins black; a white edge to dorsal; caudal with upper half white; anal 
and ven trals black; pectoral paler posteriorly. 
Color in alcohol, deep brown, more or less uniform; first 3 dorsal spines whitish, upper margin 
same color except posteriorly, where upper portion is grayish; anal blackish, caudal blackish, upper 
margin whitish; pectoral and ventral gray. 
Apparently not very abundant. Represented in our collections by only 6 examples, all from 
Honolulu. Length 2 (No. 909), 2.1, 2.3 (No. 277), 2.25, 2.5, and 2.75 inches, respectively, the average 
being 2.31 inches. 
The fish figured and described by Gunther in Fische derSudsee as Salarias variolosus (p. 203, pi. 
116, fig. A), from Tahiti, is a different species. 
Salarias variolosus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XI, 317, 1836, Guam; Fowler, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1900, 
518 (Sandwich Islands) ; not of Gunther, Fische der Siidsee; Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Sept. 23, 
1903), 507 (Honolulu). 
Salarias nigripes Seale, Occas. Pap. Bishop Mus., I, No. 3, 1901, 127, Guam. 
416. Alticus marmoratus (Bennett). Fig. 220. 
Head 4.25 in length; depth 3.8; eye 4.5 in head; snout 3.5; width of mouth 2; interorbital 1.65 
in eye; D. xii, 16; A. 17; P. 14; Y. 2. 
Body elongate, compressed, its greatest depth at middle of belly; depth of head 1.25 in its length; 
width of head 1.35; cheeks not swollen; anterior profile steep, oblique, mouth very broad, low, and 
slightly inferior; maxillary reaching below posterior margin of pupil; teeth very fine, villiform, 
Fig. 220.— Alticus marmoratus (Bennett); after Gunther. 
movable, forming an edge; lips rather thin, covering the teeth; eye high, in anterior third of head, 
with small fleshy appendage above about equal to its diameter; no crest pn top of head; interorbital 
space very narrow, concave; spinous dorsal beginning a little before posterior margin of gill-opening, 
the spines low, short, more or less even, first 2.2 in head; third dorsal ray longest, 1.65; anal beginning 
a little in advance of soft dorsal, the membranes between rays deeply incised; seventh anal ray 1.9; 
caudal truncate, equal to head; pectoral very broad at base, pointed, rays just below middle of fin 
longest; ventrals small, inserted before origin of spinous dorsal, 1.5 in head; caudal peduncle com- 
pressed, its depth 2.5; lateral line arched at first, running down abruptly before tip of pectoral to 
middle of side, and then straight. to base of caudal. 
Color in alcohol, brown, mottled with darker, lower surface paler, a black blotch behind eye; side 
with fine dark vertical cross-bands extending on dorsal fins; soft dorsal with oblique dusky streaks; 
anal with outer portion dusky; caudal with 4 dusky cross-bars; pectoral and ventral gray. 
Described from an example (No. 810) taken at Kailua. 
The color pattern of this species is variable, as the fish described above is without the dusky cross- 
bars on the right side of body. Some examples show about 5 ill-defined pairs of brown vertical 
mottlings. In another example (No. 1010) the colors are well preserved in alcohol; dorsal fins spotted 
with brown; a dark-brown spot at base of first, fourth, seventh, tenth, and between last spine and 
first ray; also a dark-brown spot at base of third, sixth, ninth, twelfth, and last dorsal rays; side 
beautifully variegated with brown, and just below the middle a row of white spots; lower surface of 
body white; a black streak behind eye and a black blotch above base of pectoral; lower surface of 
