The type of this species, an adult male, was taken at Santa Barbara, Cal., February 8, 1880, by A. Larco, an Italian fishermen. It is numbered -in the collection of the United States National Museum. Mr. Larco states that this species is not uncommon about Santa Barbara in spring and summer.

This species is probably related to Platyrhina sinensis, but it has little affinity with Platyrhina exasperata, already described by us, from San Diego. In color, form of tail, and character of the dermal covering it resembles the Rhinobatida, and its affinities with Syrrhina, of the latter "family," are evident.

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF "ROCK COD" (SEBASTICHTHYS SERRICEPS), FROM THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA. By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHARLES H. GILBERT. Body rather robust, heavy forwards, compressed behind, the caudal peduncle short and rather slender. Head large. Mouth large, rather oblique, the maxillary reaching to opposite the middle of the eye; the premaxillary anteriorly on the level of the orbit; jaws about equal, in the closed mouth; teeth, as usual, in villiform bands on the jaws, vomer, and palatines.

Top of head with the spinous ridges very thick and strong, their tips bluntish, turned upward and outward; the spines on each side placed nearly in a right line, so that the edge of the crown seems somewhat regularly serrated.

The following pairs of spines are present: nasal, preocular, supraocular, tympanic, occipital, and nuchal. The coronal spines (found in S. auriculatus and S. ruber) are wanting in this species, as are the postocular spines (usually present in S. pinniger). Interorbital space between the spines narrow, flat, and coarsely scaled (the elevated ridges found in S. nigrocinctus being wanting). The tympanic spines are

stronger than in related species. The nuchal spines are as usual placed close behind the occipital.

Preorbital bone rather broad, with a single obsolete spine directed downward. Preopercle with five rather short and bluntish spines, the second the larger, the three lower quite small. Opercle with two bluntish, diverging spines. A blunt spine on the shoulder girdle above the pectorals; two sharp suprascapular spines. Subopercle and lower edge of opercle each with a blunt point. Preorbital scaly below. Maxillary naked.

Eye rather large, its diameter about one-quarter the length of the head.

Gill-rakers clavate, short, stiff, compressed, armed with bristly teeth above and within. There are about thirty of them in all, those nearest the middle of the arch longest and most perfect, the others gradually growing smaller and incomplete. About half of them have the poste rior edge free. The longest is about one-third the length of the eye (in S. melanops; in S. pinniger). In form they are midway between the tubercle-like gill-rakers of "Sebastosomus" (S. melanops) and the long and slender gill-rakers in "Sebastomus” (S. pinniger, flavidus, auriculatus, etc.).

Branchiostegals 7, the gill membranes, as in other species, little united, without isthmus.

Scales moderate, essentially as in S. fasciatus and related species. Lateral line with 55 scales.

Dorsal fin with strong spines, the fourth to seventh highest and subequal, the lowest more than half the height of the highest. Soft dorsal rather higher than any of the spines. Caudal fin broad, rounded. Anal fin with the second spine robust, about as long as the third and much stronger, the soft rays high.

Pectoral broad and rounded, its base deep, nearly one-third the length of the head, its lower rays thickened as in S. melanops, its tips reaching just past the vent. Ventrals falling just short of the front of anal.

Fin rays: D. XII, 1, 13; A. III, 5.

General color dark olive, blackish on the head and back, the sides somewhat yellowish; sides of body with black cross-bands which are somewhat oblique; these bands are usually distinct, but are sometimes nearly obsolete in dark-colored examples. The first band runs downward from front of dorsal across base of pectoral; the second from near the middle of spinous dorsal to behind the ventrals; the third from the posterior part of the dorsal to the vent; the fourth and fifth above the anal, and the sixth at base of caudal. Another black bar extends across the scapular region and the opercular spines, and two bands radiate from the eye, obliquely downward and backward. Belly dusky greenish; fins blackish, with a strong olive tinge.

Lips, mouth, front and lower part of the head, with a strong wash of

coppery red, this color fading out on the thoracic region. Base of fins and different parts of the body sometimes with obscure small whitish spots.

This species is found in great abundance about the island of Santa Catalina, where eight examples were obtained by the writers. Another was taken at Santa Barbara, where the species is considered rare by the fishermen. It seems to be intermediate between the still rougherheaded S. nigrocinctus, on the one hand, and the smoother S. fasciatus and S. melanops on the other.

ON

THE OCCURRENCE OF CEPHALOSCYLLIUM LATICEPS (DU.
MÉRIL) GILL, ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.

By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHARLES H. GILBERT. While we were engaged in making collections on the coast of Los Angeles County, California, a shark was described to us by a Wilmington fisherman as having the habit when caught of filling himself with air "till he was big as a barrel," so that if thrown back in the water he would float away on the surface, belly upward, etc., exactly after the fashion of the species of Tetrodon. On cross-questioning, the fisherman assured us that the animal was a genuine shark, with the mouth underneath and many sharp teeth, and that he had frequently taken them near Wilmington.

At last one of these animals was brought in to us by a fisherman

named Vicente Leonardo, who took it in a gill-net off Santa Catalina Island. It proved to be a species of the genus Cephaloscyllium Gill, and apparently identical with the type of the genus (Scyllium laticeps Duméril). This species has been hitherto recorded, so far as we know, only from Tasmania.

The following is a description of our specimen (No. States National Museum):

United

Head short and broad, broader than long, and not half as deep as broad; snout very blunt, not projecting much beyond the mouth; eyes oblong, small, the spiracles behind them well developed; no nictitating membrane; nasal openings not confluent, their flaps separated by a broad space, the breadth of which is two-thirds the length of the snout; nasal flaps conspicuous, without cirrus; mouth very broad, not strongly curved, with only a trace of labial fold at the angle; skin at the angle of the mouth thin, smooth, pale, and raised into little cross-folds.

Teeth similar in both jaws, small, sharp, with a long central cusp and a small basal cusp on each side. About four series of teeth. Teeth 30+30

27+27

First dorsal beginning over middle of ventrals; second dorsal beginning behind front of anal and ending a little before end of anal; base of pectorals low and horizontal, the last two gill openings above them. Caudal fin short.

Color dark grayish-brown, with five pairs of dark bars across the back, their form irregular; the central pair bounded by straight lines and forming a cross-shaped figure; middle part of each fin blackish; entire surface of body and fins covered with round black spots of different sizes, these larger and less numerous on the belly; on the sides are also whitish spots, smaller and less numerous than the black ones.

This specimen was a female, with the ova nearly ripe. The stomach when received by us was much inflated. The intestines contained numerous specimens of a small gasteropod shell.

Other fishermen about Wilmington tell me that they take this shark occasionally, about two or three times a year, and that when fully inflated it is half as broad as long, a statement not hard to believe.

A fisherman at Santa Barbara, Mr. A. Larco, tells me that he also knows this shark. He has in his possession two egg-cases, with the eggs, which he says were taken from one of this species. These eggcases are "wheel-barrow shaped," like the egg-cases of rays, and provided with long tendrils.

ON THE OIL-SHARK OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (GALEORHINUS

GALEUS).

By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHARLES H. GILBERT.

Along the coast of Southern California a large species of shark appears in the spring in great schools. At certain places along the coast, especially about Newport Landing, in the southern part of Los Angeles County, the pursuit of this shark becomes a matter of considerable economic importance. They are taken easily with a hook, and sometimes great numbers of them may be surrounded and brought in with a seine. They are valued for their livers and fins. A single liver when the animals first arrive, in March, will yield a gallon of oil. As much as 4,000 gallons of this oil have been procured at Newport in a single season. The fins of this species are sold to the Chinamen, who find them a great delicacy, and pay for them 123 cents a pound.

The present writers have succeeded in obtaining one of these "oilsharks," and find the species to be the European tope, Galeorhinus galeus (Galeus canis and vulgaris of authors). It is singular that our only knowledge of the occurrence of this species on the west coast of America till now has been the indication by Dr. Günther of the presence in the British Museum of "o. Young. San Francisco. From Mr. Gruber's collection." Yet, in the waters of California south of Point Conception it is doubtless more numerous in individuals than all other species of sharks combined.