ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF FISHES CONFUSED WITH 

 BRYOSTEMMA POLYACTOCEPHALUM. 



By David Starr Jordan and John Otterbein Snyder 



Of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 



Some confusion has arisen in the works of recent autnors concerning' 

 the identity of a species of Blenny, described by Pallas^ as Blennius 

 [joJ yactocejjhalus. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean' figured a blenny from Alaska 

 which he believed to lie identical with the species named ^^\ Pallas. 

 Herzenstein '^ described Chiroloplum japonicux^ a supposed new species 

 from Hakodate, fJapan, which »Tordan and Evermann regard as %\w- 

 on3'mous with the Blennius j^olyactocejyhal as of Pallas. Again, Jordan 

 and Starks* described a specimen from near Seattle as Bryostemma 

 polyactocepJialum^ apph^ing for the first time the generic name Bi'yos- 

 ternma, the tj^pe of which is the species described. Other fishes sup- 

 posed to belong to the same form are also recorded. Later. Jordan 

 and Gilbert"^ identified a specimen from Petropaulski, stating that it 

 agreed perfectlj^ with the description given by Pallas. Jordan and 

 Evermann® examined the specimens here mentioned, except the ones 

 possessed b}" Bean and by Herzenstein, referring all to the species 

 Bryostenima jyolyactocejjhaliim^ not, however, without considerable 

 doubt, remarking that the}' "show a great deal of variation and pos- 

 sibly represent three different species." 



A reexamination of the same material shows that four entirely dis- 

 tinct species were represented in the collection, as will appear. The 

 example from Petropaulski, identified b}^ Jordan and Gilbert, belongs 



^ Pallas, Zoographia Rosso- Asiatica, III, 1811, p. 179. 



^ Bean in Nelson, Report upon Natural History Collections made in Alaska, 1887, 

 p. 305, pi. XV, fig. 2. 



•^ Herzenstein, Melanges Biologiques^ tires du Bulletin de I'Acadeniie Imperiale des 

 Sciences de St. Petersbourg, XIII, 1890, p. 123. 



* Jordan and Starks, The Fishes of Puget Sound, Proceedings of tlie California 

 Academy of Sciences, 1895, p. 841. 



■' Jordan and Gilbert, Fishes of Bering Sea, in Report of the Fur-Seal Investigations, 

 Pt. 3, p. 479. 



^ Jordan and Evermann, Fishes of North and Middle America, III, p. 2408. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXV— No. 1 300 . 



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