abstracts: zoology 443 



fire out and to prohibit cutting from July to September, and especially 

 in August. The best results in securing coppice growth will accrue 

 from a system which confines cutting to the period from November 

 to April, inclusive. Clear cutting should never be practiced, and the 

 wasteful pollarding practiced by the Mexican woodchoppers is even 

 preferable, as a sort of rough selection system, to a clear cutting, which 

 tends to lay bare a large area and render all unprotected young growth 

 susceptible to injury. Findley Burns. 



ZOOLOGY.- — Notes on a new species of flatfish from off the coast of New 

 England. William C. Kendall. Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, vol. 30, 1910, pp. 389-394, pi. lvii. Issued August 13, 

 1912. 



About April 18, 1912, the Bureau of Fisheries received from Mr. 

 John R. Neal, of Boston, three specimens of flounders taken in an otter 

 trawl on one of the offshore banks of New England. An examination of 

 these specimens and comparison with known American and European 

 flatfish indicated that they are a hitherto undescribed species. Later, 

 additional specimens were received from Mr. Neal, by request, and exam- 

 ination supported the view that they were new to science. Dr. Kendall 

 has accordingly published a description of this flounder, naming it 

 Pseudopleuronectes dignabilis. 



While the differences between this form and P. americanus are not 

 very great, they appear to be collectively constant, although many of 

 the characters individually approach P. americanus very closely. In 

 fact, some of them, especially those exhibited by single specimens of 

 each form examined, may disappear in an examination of larger series, 

 particularly of fish of similar sizes, as the gillrakers and teeth of most 

 fishes vary in number and character with the age of the fish. All of 

 the differences, even, may be found to intergrade, but on the principle 

 that a binomial name should represent what is known rather than what 

 is not, it is believed that what is shown in the description entitles this 

 fish to be considered a distinct species until complete intergradation 

 shall have been proved. Should such an intergradation be discovered, 

 the name will only be lengthened to a trinomial. 



The most conspicuous differential characteristics of this species con- 

 sist of a somewhat shorter head, a larger number of vertical fin rays, the 

 coloration, and the large size attained; which, taken with its deep-water 

 habitat and different spawning season from that of P. americanus, seem 

 sufficiently distinctive. 



