PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 57 



In 1845, in the 24th volume of the '' Encyclopsedia Metropolitana," au 

 article, '• Saceopharynx," appeared, in which the genus was redefined and 

 two species recognized and renamed, the fish of Mitchill being called 

 S. MitcMlli, and that of Harwood S. Jlancoodi, especial attention being- 

 called to the fact that " the intermaxillary bones and the branches of 

 the lower jaw were in Dr. Harwood's specimen furnished with fine 

 sharp teeth curved backwards, but in Dr. Mitchill's the lower jaw was 

 toothless.'' The author of the article is not specifically designated, but 

 as indicated in the table of " Contents to Vol. XXIV," the ''Zoology" 

 was prepared by "J. T. Stephens, esq., F. L. S., F. Z. S.; and J. F. South, 

 esq., F. L. S., assistant surgeon, St. Thomas's Hospital." 



Id 1846, Dr. D. H. Storer, in his "Synopsis of the Fishes of Xorth 

 America" (p. 237(, incorporated the Mitchilliau fish under the name 

 '^ Saceopharynx chordahis Mitchill," among the fishes of North America, 

 retaining it in the family "Anguillida?." The genera admitted in that 

 family by Dr. Storer were (1) AnguiUa, (2) Conger, (3) Murfcna, (4) 

 OphicUum, (5) Fierasfer, (G) Saceopharynx, and (7) Ammodytes. 



In IS.jtl, Prof. A. M. C. Dumeril, in his " Ichthyologie Analytique," 

 (p. 217), included the genus Saceopharynx in his family of " Pautopteres 

 Idiapodes," an unnatural assemblage of the genera (1) Alabes, (2) Sac- 

 eopharynx, (3) AnguiUa, (4) Conger, (5) Ophidhinfi, (6) Fierasfer, (6) Mas- 

 taeemble, and (7) Ammodytes. A single species ("une seule espece, tres- 

 grande, pechee dans TOcean atlantique") was recognized. 



In 1862, Mr. James Yate Johnson communicated " notes on rare and 

 little-known fishes taken at Madeira," in which an example of the same 

 type is described under the name Saecopharyiir ampnllaceus. The speci- 

 men obtained by Mr. Johnson " was taken in the month of March, off 

 the coast of Madeira, but under what circumstances [Mr. Johnson] could 

 not learn. The man from whom [he] obtained it stated that he had a fish 

 with two heads, two mouths, four eyes, and a tail growing out of the 

 middle of the back, which had astonished the whole market, and the 

 fishermen one and all declared they had never met with anything like 

 it before. At first sight it really did appear to be the monster described; 

 but a short examination brought to light the fact that one fish had been 

 swallowed by another, and that the features of the former were seen 

 through the thin extensible skin of the latter. On extracting the fish 

 that had been swallowed, it proved to be a Gadoid [Halargyreus John- 

 sonii], and to have a diameter several times exceeding that of its enemy 

 whose stomach it had distended to an unnatural and painful degree" (p. 

 277). 



''The Madeiran fish is 32 inches in length. It has a thin, soft, scale- 

 less skin, which is jet black. From its narrow, elongated form, and from 

 the absence of ventral fins, it M'ould be referred at the first glance to 

 the Eels; but from that tribe it is distinctly separated by the structure 



