222 



PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



newly-discovered type among the genera of Pleuronectoids. From the Ame- 

 rican genera Pseudopleuronecles, Blkr., Liopsetta, Gill, Myzopsetta, Gill, and Li- 

 manda, Gottsche, it is at least distinguished by its squamation, oculo-scapular 

 ridge, nostrils, dentition and structure of the dorsal and anal fins. It is most 

 nearly related to Pleuronectes* with which it agrees in the free tongue, but 

 the more perfect union and the triangular form of the wholly united lower 

 pharyngeal bones, the want of an anal spine, and above all the moveable teeth 

 and scarcely perforate anterior nasal tubes will especially distinguish it, not 

 only from that genus, but from any other known one. So anomalous indeed are 

 the characters of dentition and nostrils, that only after I had felt each tooth 

 could I be convinced that they were really normally moveable, and that the 

 condition was not the effect of disease, an idea which, improbable as it was, 

 occurred to me. The remaining genera of the subfamily of Pleuronectinae Pla- 

 tichthys, Grd., Parophrys, Grd., Lepidopsctta, Gill, Glyplocephalus, Gottsche, Mi- 

 crostomus, Gottsche, f Pleuronichthys, Grd., Bypsopsetta, Gill, Heteroprosopon, 

 Blkr., and Clidoderma, Blkr. are equally or still more distinct than those al- 

 ready mentioned.! 



ElJCHALARODCS PUTNAMI, Gill. 



The height of the body enters between 24 and 2f times in the ex'reoae 

 length. The head enters about 4i 4.} times in the same, and is not much 

 longer than the caudal fin. There are about 19 20 teeth in the upper jaw, on 

 the white side, and 9 or 10 on the dark ; in the lower 11 to 13 on the white, and 

 about 5 on the dark side. The height of the dorsal fin, at its highest portion, 

 which is at or near the thirty-second ray, is little less than a seventh of the 

 total length ; the longest anal rays, from the thirteenth to fifteenth, equal or 

 excel those of the dorsal. The pectoral fin enters about 6^ 6.J timesin the 

 length, and attains to the vertical from the twenty-third to twenty-3eventh 

 dorsal ray and eighth or ninth anal one. The ventral fin is inserted with its 

 axil at the vertical of the upper axil of the pectoral, and reaches to the second 

 or third ray of the anal; its length enters 9 J 9f times in the total. 



D. 55 58. A. 39 40. C. 3. 6. 6. 3. P. (3 4. 5. 2.) 10 11 V. 6. 



The color is dark brown : sometimes (in the younger) the vertical fins are 

 clouded with daiker. 



Two specimens, presented byF. W. Putnam, Esq., the Secretary of the Essex 

 Institute, of Salem, Mass., have furnished the material for this description. Both 



* Pleuronecte.1, (Art.) Blkr. Verslagen en Mededeelingen der koninklijke Akademie von Weten- 

 scliappen (Amsterdam) xiii, 1862, 426 427. 



f Microstomus, Gottsciie, lS35=Cynicoglossus, Bon, Fauna Italica Fasc, xix, 1S37, (sub Plat. 

 passer)=Cynoglossa, Bon, 1846, &c. Microstomus is perhaps sufficiently distinct from Microstoma ; 

 if not, can Cynicoglosms be used? Bonaparte, in his enumeration of the subgenera of Pleuro- 

 nectes, after the definition of Platessa, gave that of Cynicoglossus. " Secondo e Cynicoglossus nob. 

 che come it PI. cynoglossus L. ha la linea laterale retta, la bocca piccola, li denti come quello di 

 sopra \Ptatessd\ ma la mascelle uguali, con labbra turgide, e Vano senza sjiina." Bonaparte has 

 simply followed Nilsson in the erroneous identification of Pleuronectes microccphalus with PI. cy- 

 noglossus, L. As the definition of his genus does not, however, apply to the latter and does to the 

 former, it may perhaps be connected with it, notwithstanding the specific mention of the type. 



I am aware that an anal spine has been recently denied to Glyptocephalus cynoglossus, but it is 

 quite distinct in the specimen seen by me, and its presence has been admitted by other natural- 

 ists. On the other hand, a prominent spine has been attributed in one place to Microstomus, and 

 denied in another ; the latter view is sustained by naturalists generally. I am also aware that 

 the lateral line has been said to be strongly curved, but a very slight curvature only seems to be 

 evident in nature. 



t Dr. GUnther has referred to the group of narrow-mouthed Pleuronectoids with "the upper 

 eye not in advance ot the lower," four very well marked generic types Psammodiscus, Ammotrelis, 

 Jihombosolea, and Peltoramplius which evidently have no affinity with Euchalorodus. Their sys- 

 tematic position even is for me doubtful, and some of them at least especially Peltorhamphm 

 appear to belong to the family of Soleoidae. As however the form , the distinction or not exter- 

 nally of the opercular bones, the structure of the m >uth, the development of the branchial aper- 

 tures, &c, have not been made known with sufficient precision, no definite opinion can be formed. 



[Oct- 



