lished in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1854), and identifications of them have been carefully made by Alexander Agassiz (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1861, 122). By this means the names given by Dr. Gibbons have taken their proper places in synonymy.

The descriptions published by Dr. Ayres have, on the contrary, not been noticed, so far as I know, by any subsequent author, not even by Dr. Ayres himself, who soon after redescribed the same species as new, apparently not considering the first publication as a sufficient one, as one species at least received a new name on the second description. The following are the species in question:

1. Leuciscus gibbosus Ayres.

Stouter and thicker than any previously described species of the genus. Mouth small. About 60 scales in the lateral line. Brown above; silvery below. Weight about a pound. (Daily Placer Times and Transcript, issue of May 30, 1854.)

This description is not very explicit, but we are to remember that the species was described from the fish market of San Francisco, and that the five species then common in the markets were the subjects of the five descriptions. The following species of Cyprinoid fishes are taken in the Lower Sacramento River, and are now, as then, abundant in the market of San Francisco: Ptychochilus oregonensis, Ptychochilus vorax, Siboma crassicauda, Pogonichthys inæquilobus, Orthodon microlepidotus, and Catostomus occidentalis.

The description of Leuciscus gibbosus above quoted, as well as a more elaborate one afterwards published of "Lavinia gibbosa," applies to Niboma crassicauda only among the fishes which come to the San Francisco market. The name gibbosus was published in May, 1854; the name crassicauda in August, 1854. We have therefore no alternative but to drop the latter very characteristic name, and call the species Siboma gibbosa, or, perhaps better, Telestes gibbosa, for the robust caudal peduncle hardly furnishes a sufficient reason for a genus Siboma. In Ayres's time, as now, this species was known in the market as the "Chub.” 2. Leuciscus microlepidotus Ayres (1. c., May 30).

This species, afterwards more fully described as Gila microlepidota, is the well-known Orthodon microlepidotus.

3. Leuciscus macrolepidotus Ayres (1. c., May 30).

Form much like that of Leuciscus pulchellus, though a little more slender. Anal fin longer. Caudal much arcuated. Scales 60. Size of the preceding.

This is evidently the species described in August of the same year by Baird and Girard as Pogonichthys inæquilobus, under which name it was afterwards mentioned by Dr. Ayres.

It must therefore take the less appropriate name of Pogonichthys macrolepidotus. This is now the "Split-tail" of the markets.

4. Leuciscus gracilus (sic) Ayres (1. c., May 30).

Body slender; head much elongate. Color silvery, becoming darker on the back. Seales about 80; much larger than any other known Leuciscus, weighing, it is said, 30 pounds or more, but generally varying, as we find it in the markets, from 5 to 20 pounds. This is the species here known as Salmon Trout, &c.

This species was described soon after by Dr. Ayres in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 1854, p. 19, as Gila grandis. It is apparently identical with the prior Ptychochilus oregonensis of Richardson. This species is now no longer called "Salmon Trout," its market name being "Pike."

The small-scaled Ptychochilus (? vorax of Girard) was not then noticed by Dr. Ayres.

5. Catostomus occidentalis Ayres (1. c.).

Soon after reconsidered by Dr. Ayres, in the Proceedings of the California Academy, under the same name, and also still later by Professor Agassiz (Am. Journal Sci. Arts, 1855), still as Catostomus occidentalis. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., March 20, 1880.

NOTE ON “SEMA” AND “DACENTRUS.

By DAVID S. JORDAN.

In the Bulletin of Hayden's United States Geological and Geographical Survey, vol. iv, No. 2, 1878, I published "Notes on a collection of fishes from the Rio Grande at Brownsville, Tex." In this paper are characterized two new species, "Sema signifer” (p. 399), and "Dacentrus lucens" (p. 667).

These species must be suppressed. The former is a fœtal Embiotocoid, apparently Cymatogaster aggregatus, the other is the young of Hysterocarpus traskii.

The latter discovery was made before the paper was printed, but by inadvertence it was sent to the press during my absence in the field. Of course neither of these species really came from the Rio Grande at Brownsville, Tex., and their presence in a jar otherwise containing only Texas fresh-water fishes is the only excuse for the gross blunders as to their relationships.

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., March 20, 1880.

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SCORPÆNOID FISH (SEBASTICHTHYS PRORIGER), FROM MONTEREY BAY, CALIFORNIA.

By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHARLES H. GILBERT. Allied to S. oralis and S. elongatus, having the mouth, spines, and fins of the former and the color and general appearance of the latter.

Body elongate, a little deeper than in S. elongatus and somewhat more compressed, tapering slowly backward into a slender caudal peduncle, which is rather shorter and stouter than in S. elongatus.

Head rather short and small, the profile somewhat steeper than in S. elongatus. Mouth small, much as in S. oralis, the short, narrow maxillary extending to below the middle of the eye, the premaxillary on the

level of the lower margin of the pupil. Lower jaw strongly projecting, with a conspicuous symphyseal knob. Eye very large, longer than snout. Preorbital with its neck extremely narrow, armed with a slight spine.

Spinous ridges on top of head very low and weak, about as in S. ovalis, rather lower and narrower than in S. atrovirens and S. pinniger. The following pairs of spines are present: Nasal, preocular, supraocular, tympanic, and occipital, five pairs in all, as in S. elongatus. The ridges are most of them partly covered by scales. Preocular spine little prominent. Supraocular ridge very little developed, its length two-fifths that of the eye (in 8. elongatus two-thirds). Tympanic spine minute. Occipital ridge not conspicuous, the spine depressed.

Preopercular spines sharp, rather shorter than in S. elongatus, but similar, the second longest, the points of all directed backward rather than radiating. Opercular spines moderate; bluntish points on subopercle and interopercle. Two bluntish suprascapular spines.

Interorbital space broad, nearly as broad as the eye, somewhat regularly convex, the middle being elevated. In S. elongatus, as in most of the red species, the interorbital space is transversely concave.

Gill-rakers very long, slender, and numerous, about 10+30, the longest longer than the supraocular ridge, and about half the diameter of the eye.

Scales rather small, as in S. ovalis, in about 65 transverse series, the accessory scales rather few.

Dorsal fin very low, as in S. oralis, not deeply emarginate, the shortest (twelfth) spine two-thirds the height of the fifth, which is little more than one-third the length of the head. Soft dorsal low, nearly twice as high as long, the highest ray about equal to the longest spine. Caudal fin moderately forked. Anal fin very low, its length about equal to the height of its longest ray. Second spine much longer and stronger than the third, scarcely shorter than the longest ray.

Pectorals shortish and rather narrow, the base rather wider than the eye, the tips reaching beyond the tips of the ventrals to the vent. D. XIII, 13; A. III, 7.

Coloration very similar to that of S. elongatus, red, with olive markings. There is, however, more blackish and less greenish.

Ground color bright light red. Body mottled above with dusky olivegreen, the ground color forming distinct blotches under the third dorsal spine and under the first and last rays of the soft dorsal. Lateral line running in the middle of a very distinct continuous red stripe, precisely as in S. elongatus. Head above with purplish cross-shades. Opercle with a dusky blotch; two olive shades radiating from the eye. Lips and tip of lower jaw blackish (red in elongatus). Eyes red. Caudal fin bright red, speckled with dark olive. Spinous dorsal bright red, the posterior part of each membrane blackish; soft dorsal olive and red; lower fins bright light red, with shades of olive-yellow.

This species is known to us from about eight examples obtained in the San Francisco market. They came from Monterey Bay, in a box containing Sebastichthys rosaceus, constellatus, elongatus, and chlorostictus, species all similar in size and redness of color. Later about sixty examples were obtained, all from deep water about Monterey and the Farallones.

The relations of Sebastichthys proriger seem to be most intimate with S. ovalis (Ayres), from which it differs in the more elongate form, the red color, and the absence of the postocular spine. It resembles superficially S. elongatus most, and its position is evidently between ovalis and elongatus. Its relations with S. pinniger are also not remote. To the green S. oralis, S. proriger bears the same relation that the red S. pinniger does to the green S. atrovirens.

In the following table comparative measurements of S. pinniger, ovalis, and elongatus are given for purposes of comparison with proriger:

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW AGONOID (AGONUS VULSUS), FROM THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.

By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHARLES H. GILBERT. Body elongate, tapering rapidly to the long tail, everywhere broader than high. It is highest and broadest at the shoulders, but is lower and narrower than the head.

Head acutely triangular as viewed from above, the profile irregularly sigmoid; lower surface of head and body plane from the head to the tail. Mouth U-shaped, entirely inferior, the maxillary reaching to opposite the front of the pupil, the premaxillary in front to the base of the posterior pair of rostral spines. The distance from the anterior margin of the premaxillaries forward to the tip of the rostral spines equals more than half the length of the snout, more than half the diameter of the eye, less than one-fifth the length of the head. Lips thickish. Upper jaw protractile. Teeth small, in a villiform band, none evident on the vomer or palatines. Maxillary mandible and branchiostegal region with some small scattered cirri; under side of snout with few barbels or none. Eyes large, nearly as long as snout, 33 in length of head, the orbital bones forming a raised ridge around them. Interorbital space transversely concave, nearly straight longitudinally, with a lengthwise groove and two slight ridges. Profile depressed at the front of the eyes, thence nearly straight to the tip of the rostral spines.

Spines on head highly developed. On each side a stout straight rostral spine projecting horizontally forwards; at its base a stout spine. curved backwards, upwards, and outwards; behind this a smaller one projecting upwards. Orbital ridge above serrated, and with two prominent recurved spines, one in front, the other behind; behind these a ridge on each side confluent with the dorsal ridges and each with four spines; between these the top of the head is roughish and somewhat concave, with traces of a median keel. At the occiput is a conspicuous pit between the above-mentioned ridges, broader than long and longer than deep. Just below these ridges, on each side, is another and more prominent ridge, also ending in four spines, the last very strong; this is continuous with the upper lateral keel of the body; below this, on the opercle, is a strong keel ending behind in a spine; still lower is an irregular ridge, armed with two or three irregular series of spines and tubercles, extending from the preorbital along the subortal and preop ercle, ending in a stout preopercular spine; behind the pectorals this ridge again appears as the long lateral keel of the body.

Along the lower margin of the preopercle are three or four more bluntish spines. There are on the head between seventy and eighty more or less developed spinous processes.

Isthmus rather wide.

Body with four ridges on each side, formed by the series of scales. Each scale ending in a strong recurved spine, its roots forming striæ on