14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL, MUSEUM vol. C6 



by the open-sea fishermen. Its flesh is white and excellent. The 

 peculiar network structure of the gills, like that of the sword-fish 

 {Xiphias) , the laminae of each arch joined into one plate by reticu- 

 lations, probably justifies the recognition of this genus as type of a 

 distinct family. The same structure of the gills occurs in Istio- 

 'phoi'us and Tetra-pturus. 



Family GEMPYLIDAE 



Genus RUVETTUS Cocco 



RUVETTUS TYDEMANI (Weber). 



Ruvettus pretiosus Jordan aud Evermann (not of Cocco, Osservationes Pelo- 

 ritani, vol. 13, p. 18, 1833.) 



Ruvettus tydcmani Weber, Fische Sihoga Exped., p. 401, 1913. 



Ruvettus pacificus Jordan and Jordan, Memoirs of Carnegie Museum, vol. 10, 

 no. 1, 1922, p. 34. 



This rare species, the Walu of the fisherman, was first described 

 as distinct from the Atlantic species, R. pretiosus, by Weber in 1913. 

 The name tydemani has priority over our designation of R. pacifiGus. 



Family ISTIOPHORIDAE 



Genus TETRAPTURUS Rafinesque 



TETRAPTURUS MITSUKURII Jordan and Snyder, A'u. 



The spear-fish or marlin-fish, known as A'u, seems to be the same 

 as the Japanese species T. uiits^ikurn, and also identical with the 

 form found in Southern California and in New Zealand, no differences 

 appearing in photographs. It needs comparison with Tetrapturus 

 audtt'X'^^ (Philippi) from Chile, as well as with the Mediterranean 

 .species, Tetrapturus helone Rafinesque. Both names, telone and 

 audax, have priority over mitsuhurii. The still earlier name im- 

 perator of Schneider, was based on a bad drawing of the sword-fish, 

 Xiphias. According to Liitken all the species of T etrapturus are 

 reducible to two, Tetrapturus helone of the Atlantic and T. herscheli 

 of the Pacific, the latter described from the Cape of Good Hope 

 (1838). A still earlier Pacific name is that of Tetrapturus indicus 

 (Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1831), from a drawing made in Sumatra. 

 Probably our species will ultimately stand as Tetrapturus indicus, 

 but as there is little gain in substituting one doubtful opinion for 

 another, we may provisionally retain the name Tetrapturus mitsu- 

 kurii for the species of the North Pacific. 



Genus CARANX Lacepede 



Teeth unequal, some of them enlarged ; lateral line strongly arched 

 in front. 



^'^ Histiphorus audax Philippi, Auales de la Universitlad de Chile, vol. 81, p. 35, 1887, 

 pi. 8, Iquique, Chile. Color dark, with whitish cross streaks as in T. mitsukurii. 



