PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 361 



NOTE 0:V PLATESSA FERRUGINE A. B. II. STOREK, AIV» JPI.ATESSA 

 ROSTKATA, Bl. K. STORER. 



By G. BI£0^*V]\ GOOOE sssmI TAKS.ETON 15. BEAIV. 



Ill a paper on tlie Fishes of Xova Scotia and Labrador, published in 

 1857,* Mr. H. E. Storer described a species of flonuder under the name 

 Platessa rostrata. This species has been a puzzle to ichth^^ologists. I)r. 

 Giinther, in 1SG2, ventured the remark, that it "appears to be allied to 

 Pleuronectes limaMla.^^ Professor Gill, in 18G1, referred it to his nominal 

 genus Myzopsetta, and in 1864 to Llmanda.X While investigatiug the 

 fauna of the Xova Scotia coast in 1877, the naturalists of the United 

 States Fish Commission made especial efforts to find this species, but with- 

 out success, which was a matter of some surprise, since nearly all the spe- 

 cies recorded from the Gulf of St. Lawrence were observed in the course 

 of the siimmer.§ In 1878, several si>ecimens were trawled in Massachu- 

 setts Bay, which were strongly suggestive of Storei's Platessa rostrata, 

 and which, upon comi^arison with his description, were found to agree 

 with it in every i^articular except that in relation to the relati^'e size of 

 the scales on the superior portion of the operculum arid the neighborhood 

 of the lateral line, a matter aj)pareiitiy of individual variation. A more 

 extended study of the subject has convinced us that the individuals at 

 first studied, as well as the ones described by H. E. Storer, should be 

 identified with Platessa fernnjhwa, I). H. Storer, a species which should 

 undoubtedly be referred to the genus LhiianiJu of Gottsche. Limanda 

 was established by Gottsche in 1835 in Wiegmann's Archiv fiir ]!^atur- 

 geschichte (p. 100), and is synonymous with Myzopsetta, described by 

 Professor Gill in 1801, 1| distinguished by him from Limanda by the fol- 

 lowing characters: "snout refuse" (instead of "conic"); "mouth very 

 oblique" (instead of "moderately oblique"). 



* Observations ou the Fishes of Nova Scotia and Labrador, with Descrix)tions of New 

 Species. By Horatio E. Storer. p. 268, pi. viii, fig. 2. <^Boston Journ. of Nat. Hist., 

 vi, 1857, pp. 247-270, pi. vii, viii. 



t Catalogue of the Fishes in the Briti.sh Museum, iv, 1352, ^i. 447. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, p. 217. 



\N Regardiug the habitat of Plates.<<a ro-siraUi, Storer wrote as follows: ''With the 

 exception of one si^ecimen at Red Bay, this species was met with only at Bras d'Or, 

 where it is very abundant, inhabiting however a far different region from the 

 {Platessa) plana just mentioned. Instead of sheltered bays and harbors, it delights in 

 the surf of the ocean beaches exposed to the waves of the whole Gulf, and is here 

 taken in great numbers at the di-awing of the herring seines." — Op. cit. p. 269. 



II Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, p. 216 (in synopsis). 



