1856.] 131 



Color. Yellow above, incllulog to brown, with very numerous small black 

 spots; under parts of a brighter yellow throughout, without spots. 



Dimen&ions . Length of head 4 lines ; greatest breadth 3 lines; length of neck 

 and body 1 inch 1\ lines, (Fr. ;) ol tail 1 inch 5 lines ; total length 3 inches 1 

 lines. 



Ilabitat. With the preceding in Georgia. One specimen in Mus. Acad. Nat. 

 Sc, presented by Mnjor Le Cunie, U. S. A. 



Contributions to the Ichthyology of the Western Coast of the United States, from 

 specimens in the museum of the Smithsonion Institution. 



By Charles Girard, M. D. 



Two years have scarcely elapsed since I communicated to the Academy de- 

 scriptions of various fishes collected upon different points of the Pacific coast of 

 North America. Dnring that period the indefatigable researches of several oifi- 

 ccs of the U. S. Army, and naturalists attached to the surveys made under 

 orders from the General Government, have brought to light nuxny new and in- 

 teresting members of that class of animals, and of which I propose now to give 

 a brief account, extracted from final Reports, made to the officers in charge of 

 these surveys. 



It has also been deemed advisable to mention such changes as have been made 

 in the generic position of several species previously described, either by me or 

 others, in order to give a more correct idea of the Reports just alluded to. 



It will be remembered that while I was engaged in those investigations of our 

 Western fishes, two naturalists, Drs. W. 0. Ayers and W. P. Gibbons, both resi- 

 dents of San Francisco, Cal., had (without any knowledge of what I was doing,) 

 described a certain number of species, some of which we already know have 

 proved identical with my own. The law of priority in their publication will 

 decide upon the names to be finally adopted in the nomenclature. So far I have 

 been unwilling to settle upon any identifications without the specimens to go by, 

 in order to avoid confusion as well as complicate the sj'nonymy. Drs. AyreK 

 and Gibbons, both, have shown an earnest desire to furnish me with authentic 

 specimens of the species which they have described, and I am happy to say that 

 from the former I have been favored by a good many up to this day, as will be 

 seen further on. 



For reference to the species described by Prof. Agassiz, some of which havf 

 appeared in my papers, it is but just to say that such identifications as were at- 

 tempted by me, were made from the accounts published at that time. As far a.s 

 genera are concerned I feel confident that no error was committed ; in regard to 

 the species I entertain certain doubts which can not be removed by the docu- 

 ments at our command. I have sought to do justice to the subject from the very 

 beginning, and rather than introduce any changes in their present nomencla- 

 ture I send them before the world as they now stand. 



With the above preliminaries I proceed into the subject. 



The species formerly described by me under the genus Lahrax were found, 

 upon further examination, to constitute a genus by itself, the relationship of 

 which being more those of Serranus than of Labrax, and it is in the vicinity of 

 the former that it ought to be placed in the ichthyic method. From Serranus 

 it may be distinguished by the outline of the spinous dorsal fin, and the rela- 

 tive development of the canine taeth, which are so small as to have suggested 

 the idea that the species belonged to Labrax. 



The new genus we will henceforth call 



FARALABRAX, 



and characterise as follow : " General physiognomy that of Labrax, but the first 

 dorsal fin is contiguous to the second as in Serranus. The profil of the body is 

 subfusiform the caudal fin subtruncated or slightly emarginated posteriorly. 



