566 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



to the development of tlie disk as being- a " teleological modification," 

 and as if it were not an actual fact and a development correlated with 

 radical modifications of all parts of the skeleton at least. 



But whatever may be the closest relations of JEcheneis, or the system- 

 atic value of its peculiarities, it is certain that it is not allied to Macate 

 any more than to others of the hosts of Scombroid, Percoid, and kin- 

 dred fishes, and that it differs in toto from it, notwithstanding the claims 

 that have been made otherwise.* It is true there is a striking re- 

 semblance, especially between the young — almost as great, for example, 

 as that between the i^lacental mouse and the marsupial antechinomys — 

 but the likeness is entirely superficial, and the scientific ichthyologist 

 should be no more misled in the case than would the scientific therolo- 

 gist by the likeness of (he marsupial and placental mammals. 



NOTE OIV THE GENUS SPARIJS. 



BY THEODORE OILE. 



Messrs. Jordan and Gilbert propose to restore the Linnsean name 

 Spams to Sparus hoops, after the example of Swainson (Nat. Hist, and 

 Class. Fishes, etc., v. 2, i^p. 171, 221), instead of to the Sparus aurata, as I 

 have done. This course is inadmissible, as those naturalists will doubt- 

 less recognize when they become conversant with the facts of the case. 



Linnaeus, after Artedi and the older authors, employed the name for 

 Sparoid and other fishes of diverse kinds, and including Sjmms aurata, 

 Sparus hoops, etc. Both Artedi and Linnaeus placed the S. aurata at the 

 head or as first of the genus. 



Bloch and Lac6pMe variously restricted the genus, but still retained 

 the forms just noted. 



Cuvier, ill 1817, subdivided the old genus into "tribes" and "genera," 

 distinguishing for the Siiarus hoops, etc., the " second tribe," and the 

 genus "Boops Cuv.," and for the Sjjarus aurata and related forms the 

 "third tribe" and the restricted genus "Sparus Cuv." The "genus" 

 was subdivided into subgenera, viz: "Les Sargues (Sargus. Cuv.)," "les 

 Daurades" (without a latin equivalent), and "les Pagres (Pagrus. Cuv.)." 



The name Sjyar^ts must, therefore, be retained for a section of the 

 genus as restricted by Cuvier. 



Risso, in 1827, supplied a Latin name "Aurata " for " les Daurades" 

 of Cuvier. 



Cuvier, in 1829, retained the genus^ Sparus with the same limits as in 

 1817, but with a slightly different subdivision of subgenera, viz : " Les 

 Sargues (Sargus)," "les Daurades (Chrysophris K.)," "les Pagres" 

 (without a Latin name), and "les Pagels (Pagellus Cuv.)." 



*"This genus [Echcneisi is closely allied to the preceding lEIacate}, from which it 

 differs only by the transformation of the spinons dorsal rin into a sucking organ." 

 (aunther, Int. to Study of Fishes," p. 460, 1880.) 



