NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 445 



D.I. 43. A. I. 41., P. 9. V. 5. 



The color is dark reddish or chocolate brown. 



A single specimen, for which there is no indication of locality, is in the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and formed part of the collection of the former Na- 

 tional Institute of the city of Washington. It is in rather poor condition, 

 the caudal fin having been entirely lost. The length of the remaining portion 

 is seven inches. I am disposed to believe that it was sent from Liberia. 



I dedicate the species to my friend Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, to whom I have been so much indebted for the privileges of studying 

 the rich collections of the Institution, and especially of investigating the class 

 to which the present species belongs. 



On the Synonymy and Systematic Position of the Genus ETELIS of 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



BY THEODORE GILL. 



In the second volume of the " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons," Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes have distributed among two primary sections those species of 

 their family of Percoids, which have ventral fins with five rays and inserted 

 beneath the pectoral, and which have seven branchiostegal rays. Those sec- 

 tions are distinguished by the condition of the dorsal fin ; the first having two 

 dorsals, or a dorsal emarginated to its base ; the second having a single dorsal. 



In the section distinguished by the division of the dorsal fin, and in that 

 subsection whose representatives have canine teeth mingled with others, 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes have placed a generic type which they have techni- 

 cally characterized by the scarcely apparent dentelure of the preoperculum, 

 the single opercular point, and the contiguous dorsals, and which was dis- 

 tinguished from Lucioperca (recte Stizostedion, Raf.) by the wholly villiform 

 teeth of the palate, and the presence of two* opercular spines. The Etelis 

 is, however, not at all related to Stizostedion, but, as will be hereafter shown, 

 belongs to a different family. It is a fish distinguished by its slender and 

 elegant symmetrical form, the deeply-forked caudal, whose lobes are elongated, 

 and acute, and especially by the remarkably large size of the eyes. The first 

 dorsal of this fish is stated by Cuvier and Valenciennes to terminate at the 

 base of the second. Only one species has been referred to the genus. That 

 species is the Etelis carbunculus, of Cuvier and Valenciennes, and has been 

 found in the archipelago of the Seychelles and at the Isle of France. 



In the second section of the same division of Percoids, characterized by the 

 single dorsal fin, and in the subsection distinguished by the possession of 

 canine teeth, Cuvier and Valenciennes have placed the genus Serranus. To 

 that group of the genus for which they have accepted Bloch's name Anthias, 

 they have referred a species which they have named Serranus ocidatus, and 

 which is distinguished from all others of that section by the comparatively 

 slight connection between the spinous and soft portions of the dorsal. This 

 fish is likewise remarkable for its slender symmetrical shape, a deeply-forked 

 caudal fin with prolonged and acute lobes, and also especially for its very large 

 eyes. Of the dorsal fins it is simply said that the spines diminish in length 

 from the third to the tenth, which is the last and the lowest. 



On a comparison of the two fishes thus enumerated, it is found that they 

 agree in all respects. The Etelis carbunculus and the Serranus oculatus have 

 the same form of the head and body, the same form and structure of the fins, 

 the same armature of the bones of the head, and the same large eyes, and'' 

 the same dentition. There is no generic distinction between them whatever, 



* Etelis has two opercular spines and not one as previously stated. 



1862.] 31 



