146 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



The object of these memoirs is to show that there are eleven species of Se- 

 bastoid fishes in the Californian waters, distributable among two genera, dis- 

 tinguished only by the prominence or little development of spinous ridges on 

 " the top of the head." For those with ridges he reserves the name Sebas- 

 tes; for those with "little developed " ones, he accepts the name Sebastodes, pro- 

 posed for a natural genus of which S. paucispinis is the only known species. 



Rehearsing the history of Sebastodes, Dr. Ayres admits that the "grouping 

 of characters" assigned to it "belongs onj^y to the single species S. paucispinis;''' 

 and also in his final paper, that "the ' minute scales' belong only to S. pauci- 

 spmis,"* and then proceeds to show that species of other genera have some 

 of the characters attributed to it ! He finally dismisses Sebastodes immedi- 

 ately after the remark that "the 'minute scales' belong only to S. paucispinis" 

 with the conclusion that " it does not seem possible, therefore, (!!) that Sebas- 

 todes can be retained with such limits as were assigned to it by Mr. Gill" ! The 

 logical character of the inference is rather dubious, after the admission of 

 the truth of a principal proposition. But for the benefit of Dr. Ayres, who 

 may doubt the value of the character, the opinion of Dr. Giinther, whose 

 authority he will scarcely gainsay, is adduced. That gentleman attributes to 

 Sebastes " scales of moderate or small size," and not minute ones like those 

 of S. paucispinis, which, although admitted in the genus by him, he had never 

 seen. Giinther has, however, shown his appreciation of the value of the 

 size of the scales in all his diagnoses of the Scorpaenoidae, and has sepa- 

 rated the Triglas of Europe into two genera solely on account of the size of 

 the scales. Therefore the single character admitted by Ayres as peculiar to Se- 

 bastodes paucispinis would alone, in the opinion of some, entirely separate it from 

 his other species, but when it is stated that it also differs remarkably in 

 the form of the head, the skull, the preoperculum, the connection of the 

 vomer and palatine bones, the direction of the anterior teeth of the jaws, 

 the palatine rows, &c, the unnatural character of the association in one 

 genus of it and species of the ordinary Sebastoid form will be obvious. 

 Sebastodes paucispinis is decidedly the only known species of the genus. 



Dr. Ayres " refers without hesitation to the genus of which thg common 

 species of Massachusetts Bay, S. viviparus,f is a member," the species of Sebas- 

 toids with the frontal and coronal spines moderately or extremely devel- 

 oped, stating that the difference in the number of dorsal spines, when " un- 

 supported, does not appear sufficient." In this respect also he differs widely 

 from Giinther: that author distinguishes Sebastes by the number of spines, J 

 assigning to it twelve or thirteen, and emphatically insists upon its value 

 in his remarks on the Centropogon australis, a species with fifteen spines, 

 remarking, that "this species approaches in general habit the genera 

 Sebastes and Scorpzena, from which it must be separated on account of the 

 number of the dorsal spines, a much more certain generic character than 

 the presence or absence of a preorbital spine, which is found in fishes that 

 cannot be separated from Sebastes (S. nematophtkalmus.y '$ Dr. Ayres will doubt- 

 less admit the justness of the denial of the pertinence of any Californian 

 species to the same genus as Sebastes with fifteen dorsal spines, when ac- 

 quainted with this emphatic endorsement of the value of the number of dorsal 

 opines and the depreciation of the importance of the cephalic spines. It is 

 true that Dr. Giinther admits, as the first two species of Sebastes, S. norvegicus 



* Dr. Ayres has in his first article insisted that " the little ' accessory scales' mentioned by 

 Girard are not confined to the three species stated by him, hut are common to all;" but in hie 

 final paper, he has admitted the truth of Girard's and my own descriptions 



f Dr. Ayres has omitted to state that I was responsible for the identification of the Massachu- 

 setts Sebastes with & viviparity and that his knowledge of that identity was solely derived from 



016. 



J "One dorsal, separated by a notch in a spinous and soft portion, with twelve or thirteen 

 pines." Gthr., ii. 95. 

 $ Gunther, ii. 129. 



[ May, 



