NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



247 



Pallas, a fish of the Northwestern coast of America. This species, however, 

 as is at once evident from the description, has no relation with Merluccius 

 more than a large proportion of other fishes, and evidently belongs to the 

 genus Anoplopoma of Ayres ; it is a true Acanthopterygian, apparently the 

 type of a peculiar family allied to the Chiroids. In this reference, Glinther 

 lias committed the same error as Girard. On the other hand, Giinther has 

 referred to the genus Gadus and his subgenus Boreogadas, the Merlangus 

 productus of Ayres or Homalopomus Trowbridgii of Girard, which is without 

 the slightest doubt a genuine Merluccius, very closely allied to the Eastern 

 species, as the figure of Girard and the reference to its true genus by the re- 

 viewer might have satisfied him.* 



The genus Merlucius contains at least five species if the Merlus Gayi truly 

 belongs to it. These species are distributed in the following manner : 



Merlucius vulgaris Fleming. 

 Coasts of Europe and the Polar Seas. 



Merlucius bilinearis Gill ex Mit. 

 Coasts of Eastern North America from Virginia northwards. 



Meklucius productus Gill ex Ayres. 

 California. 



Merlucius aegentatus (Faber) Gthr. 

 Iceland. 



Merlucius Gayi Gthr. ex Gay. 

 Chili. 



If the execrable figure given in Gay's great work on Chili were at all reli- 

 able, it would indicate that the Merlus Gayi could scarcely be a true Merlu- 

 cius, but since Guichenot says that that species resembles the European type 

 as to the prolonged, little-compressed body, scales, opercula, form of the fins 

 and other characters, it must be at least provisionally retained here. No one 

 would suppose from the figure alone that a Merlucius was intended, as the 

 likeness is only a strong analogical one, such as may exist between members 

 of entirely distinct groups. 



Merlucius productus Gill. 



Synonymy. 



Merlangus productus Ayres, Proc. California Academy of Natural Sciences, 



vol. i. p. 64, 1855. 

 Homalopomus Trowbridgii Girard, Proceed. Academy of Natural Sciences of 



Phila., vol. viii. p. 132, 1856. 

 Homalopomus Trowbridgii Girard, Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad 



Route, &c, vol vi. Abbot's Report, Zoology, p. 23. 

 Homalopomus Trowbridgii Girard, op. cit., vol. x. Fishes, p. 144, pi. xla, 



figs. 1 4. 

 Merlucius sp. Gill, American Journal of Science and Arts, ser. 2, vol. xxx. 



p. 279 ; Proc. Academy of Nat. Sci. of Phila., 1861, p. 514. 

 Gadus productus Giinther, Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, 



vol. iv. p. 338, 1862. 



* Guentlier has also retained, in a foot-note, as a doubtful species of Merluccius, the M. ambigum 

 of Lowe, (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 37), a most ambiguous species, certainly, as to its systematic 

 position. The only knowledge of the fish is confined to the facts of the " production into a fila- 

 ment of th<- sicoud ray of the ventral fins and grooved nape," wherefore supposed to resemble 

 Moklla, but wanting "the beards and having no trace of any fin within the nuchal groove." 

 " The upper jaw closes over the under." This notice enables us to decide that it decidedly does 

 not apply to a Mcrhtcius, but does not distinguish it from the Uraleptus maraldi. 



1863.] 



