The dorsal and anal fins are posteriorly rounded off. The hinder margin of the caudal is truncate. The anterior soft ray of the ventrals is slightly prolonged beyond the margin of the fin.
Color creamy-yellow. The sides are marked with five vertical, yellowish-brown, diffuse stripes, the two anterior ones terminate on the side of the belly, and the others at the base of the anal fin. There is a slight indication of a sixth one along the basal half of the soft portion of the dorsal fin. Each scale is marked with a faint, yellowish-brown dot. A yellow line starts from a point above the base of the ventral, follows the line of the belly, and unites with a black one which traverses the anal fin. A blue black spot in front of the dorsal fin gradually passes into the ocular fascia, the latter being brown above and yellow beneath the eye. Irides chrome-yellow. Upper lip brown. A vertical black stripe, shaded off anteriorly with vermillion, marks the middle of the caudal trunk. The dorsal spines and filaments are orange-yellow, the inter-radial membrane is colorless. The soft portion of the dorsal and anal are ochre-yellow along their middle-third, the former with a broad yellow and the latter with a pale greenish margin. The two colors on either fin separated by a narrow black and white line. The caudal is colorless, with a basal vertical luniform bar, its convex margin anterior. The ventrals are whitish, and the pectorals colorless.
Length, 3½ inches.
Habitat, Sandwich Islands.
Remarks.—Two examples of this species were procured in Honolulu market.
Ophisurus Lac.
Ophisurus Californiensis Garrett.
This Ophisurus is more robust than usual in species of this genus. The head is large, swollen beneath, and comprises about one-twelfth of the entire length. The depth, taken at the origin of the anal fin, enters about twenty-eight times in the total length, or twice in the length of the head. The pectorals are large, elliptical in shape, their tips reaching posteriorly nearly as far as the origin of the dorsal fin. The dorsal and anal fins are well developed, the latter passing over a base considerably more than half the length of the fish.
The color in spirits is brown, paler on the lower half of the head, and cinereous along the throat and belly. A dorsal row of large, roundish, brownish-black spots extends from the occipital region to the end of the tail; the spots being intersected by the fin, and the two anterior ones are saddle shaped. A second row, disposed alternately to the first, occupies the upper half of the flanks. The head is irregularly maculated, the spots becoming paler beneath. The fins are light, brownish-grey; the dorsal and anal with a narrow darker margin, which is articulated with dark brown.