D. 10 



9 

 10 



NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA 239 



The height at the anus enters nearly six times in the extreme length, and 

 five times to the rudimentary caudal rays ; the head ahout 4h 4| in the for- 

 mer, and 4 4J without the caudal. The supramaxillar bones end under the 

 posterior margin of orbit. The snout is longer -than the eye, and forms a 

 fourth of the "head's length. The width of the interorbital space equals the 

 vertical diameter of the eye. The snout is narrower and more pointed than in 

 P. chuss. 



The anus is under the ninth to the eleventh rays of the second dorsal fin, 

 and is nearly intermediate between the snout and constricted portion of 

 caudal peduncle. The elongated third dorsal spine about equals the dis- 

 tance from the snout to the upper angle of preoperculum. The pectoral enters 

 about If times in the head's length. The ventral little exceeds the head, and 

 rarely extends to the vent. 



The scales are small ; there are 135 to 140 oblique rows extending from the 

 scapular region to the end of the caudal peduncle ; there are twelve rows be- 

 tween the origin of the firit dorsal and the lateral line, and ten between its 

 end and the line. 



54 A. 46. 



57 A. 47. 



_ 58 A. 50. 



The color is brownish, lighter and suffused with yellowish below the lateral 

 line, and with the belly almost yellow. The fins are very dark. The interior 

 of the mouth is simply sparingly punctulated with blackish. 



The name of Phycis tenuis is connected with this species, as the latter agrees 

 with its description in having "brown back and sides," the fins "dark 

 brown, save the ventral, " the rays approximately. "D. 11. 54. A. 44.." But 

 it is necessary to recall that the Gadus tenuis is said to have the "throat in- 

 ternally streaked with red and purple. Vent nearer the head." The latter, how- 

 ever, as will be seen from other descriptions by Mitchill, has been used at ran- 

 dom, and, with the not unusual vagueness of Dr. Mitchill, in an absolute and not 

 relative sense ; as to the other character, I have not noticed it in any speci- 

 men of P. chuss, and it is quite possible that the dark purple dots of the 

 present species may assume a " streaked " arrangement on the reddish ground 

 of the throat. The color and radial formula militate against the idea of its 

 identity with the Gadus longpipes (= Phycis chuss), immediately afterwads de. 

 scribed by Mitchill, and we may also take into consideration, but without 

 assigning to it undue value, the improbability of the description under two 

 names at the same time of so characteristic a species as the P. chuss. For 

 the present, therefore, I venture to present the species in question under the 

 name of Mitchill. It is true that the identification is not positive, but not less 

 uncertainty would prevail in connection with the name of P. Dekayi hereafter 

 noticed. 



In the "Report on^the Fishes of Massachusetts," Dr. Storer has given a 

 description of the species under the name of Phycis americanus ; in his Synop- 

 sis, a vague notice under the same name, nearly applicable to each, but with 

 the synonymy of the true P. americanus ; and, finally, in his " History of the 

 Fishes of Massachusetts," he has again described and well figured the same 

 species under the same name, giving a new one to the true P. americanus which 

 had been then recently discovered on that coast. 



In the " Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte " for 1858, Dr. Kaup has briefly noticed 

 a species from North America, similar to the " P. tinea " (P. chuss), but with 

 a longer snout, higher body, and considerably smaller scales, D. 10. 54. A. 47 ; 

 this portion of the description, so far as it goes, is applicable to the present spe- 

 cies, and was, doubtless, based on representatives of it. He places the species, 

 however, in a section distinguished by having the ventral fins, nearly or quite 

 twice as long as the head, and, if this statement is literally applied, Kaup's 



1863.] 



