Fishes of the IVestern North Atlantic 41 



subtropical belt of the Indian Ocean, but its exact relationship to P.perotteti of the 

 Atlantic remains to be determined (p. 2i).i"'' 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. Knowledge of the presence of this particular 

 species of Sawfish in the western side of the Atlantic is recent. In 1898, for example, 

 leading ichthyologists wrote that it was "not authentically known, except from the 

 rivers of Africa," ^oi and as recently as 1930 they wrote that it "probably does not occur 

 in America." 1"^ Actually it had been reported long before from the coastal waters of 

 tropical West Africa, from the Atlantic in general, and from the West Indies. "^ And 

 a specimen in the Museum at Rio de Janeiro from Bahia de Batafogo, near Rio de 

 Janeiro, was listed in 1903;"* its specific identity was established positively a few 

 years later by a photograph. 1"^ It is now known that P.perotteti is widely distributed 

 in suitable locations along the coasts of America within the latitudinal limits stated 

 above. Localities of record for it include: Santos, the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia 

 (Sao Salvador), Natal, and Marajo Island on the coast of Brazil, as well as the Amazon 

 up to Parintins, some 450 miles inland from the sea; Dutch, British and French Guiana; 

 Venezuela; the San Juan River, Colombia, tributary to the Gulf of Darien;"^ Lake 

 Yzabel and vicinity, Guatemala; Lake Nicaragua; from unspecified localities in the 

 Gulf of Mexico and West Indies and the Texas Coast from the Mexican border 

 (Brownsville) to the Louisiana line (Port Arthur), where it is said to be more common 

 than P. pectinatus. This last seems to mark the usual limit to its range in that direction, 

 for it could hardly have been overlooked if it occurred in any numbers along the northern 

 shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The only records of it in Florida waters are of a saw at 

 Key West"' and of a specimen taken at Salerno on the east coast. i"* Thus its latitudinal 

 range is much less extensive than that of P. pectinatus on the American Coast, as is 

 also the case in the opposite side of the Atlantic. And it has not been recorded for any 

 locality on the Atlantic Coast north of Florida. 



Synonyms and Atlantic References:'^'" 



Pristis ferotteti^'^'^ Miiller and Henle, Plagiost., 1841 : 108 (descr., meas., no. teeth, Senegal, fresh water), 192 

 (ref. to Valenciennes); Dumeril, Arch. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 10, 1861: 261 (listed, Senegal); Hist. 



100. The Sawfish that has been variously recorded from the Pacific Coast of Central America as P. zepkyreus Jordan and 

 Starks 1895, as P. microdon Latham 1794, and as P.perotteti Miiller and Henle 1841 appears separable from P.pe- 

 rotteti of the Atlantic only by the fact that it may have up to 23 sawteeth on a side (we have seen one with 

 20/22) as compared with a recorded maximum of only 19 or 20 for the Adantic form. For references to it, see 

 Beebe and Tee-Van (Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 253). For references to Sawfishes recorded from the western 

 tropical Pacific-Indian Ocean region as P. microdon Latham 1794 and as V.perotteti Miiller and Henle 1841, see 

 Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 [/j], 1941: 295). 



loi. Jordan and Evermann, Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 47 (3), 189S: 2749. 



102. Jordan, Evermann and Clark, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1928), 2, 1930: 23, footnote. 



103. Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 436. 



104. Schreiner and Ribeiro, Arch. Mus. nac. Rio de J., 12, 1903 : 80. 



105. Ribeiro, Arch. Mus. nac. Rio de J., 14, 1907: 173, pi. 11. 



106. Specific identity of saws seen not altogether certain (Eigenmann, Mem. Carneg. Mus., 9, 1922: 25). 



107. Saw with only 17 teeth on one side and 18 on the other, hence almost certainly this species (Baughman, Copeia, 

 1943: 46). 108. Reported to us by Stewart Springer. 



109. For references to P. zepkyreus, P. microdon and P. perotteti for the Indo-Pacific, see Beebe and Tee-Van (Zoologica 

 N. Y., 26, 1941: 253) and Fowler (Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 100 [13], 1941: 295). 



1 10. Sometimes spelled "perrotteti," or "perroteti." 



