JORDAN AND THOMPSON: FISHES OBTAINED IN JAPAN IN 1911. 245 



The ventrals are very long, a little longer than the body without the head, and 

 reaching base of caudal. Dorsal very high, beginning over the eye, the first two 

 rays short, the third longest of all, nearly four times length of second, reaching 

 middle of caudal, the posterior margin of the fin nearly straight, the rays gradually 

 shortened to the last, which is about two-thirds head. Caudal short, shorter than 

 head, apparently truncate, and beginning under middle of pectoral, its rays sub- 

 equal, and not one-third as high as the dorsal. All the fin-rays extremely slender 

 and fragile. 



Little color remains. The body is light slate-blue ; the dorsal, anal, and ventrals 

 black, the caudal and pectorals colorless. 



This species seems to differ from Caristius japonicus in being slenderer, in having 

 the cheek deeper, the ventrals not nearly so far in front of the pectorals, the anterior 

 scales not enlarged, the ventral rays longer and perhaps the dorsal and anal rays 

 also. These fins are broken off in the type of Caristius japonicus. 



The specimen, 5.5 inches long, was taken by Alan Owston in the Kuro Shiwo, 

 or Black Current, off Misaki, Sagami Bay, in Japan. It is in the Carnegie Museum 

 at Pittsburgh. 



Since the publication of the excellent description and figure of Bellotti, the 

 genus has been unnoticed, until the discovery by Dr. Hugh M. Smith of the related 

 species which he called Caristius japonicus. 



The type of this species (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XVIII, 1905; p. 249), 

 was described in 1905 by Gill and Smith from the island of Shikoku in Japan as 

 the " type of a new family of jugular acanthopterygians." Smith and Pope, 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXXI., 1906; p. 490, fig. 10), in the following year published 

 a figure of it. In December 1912, Dr. Jordan (American Naturalist, Dec, 1912, 

 p. 148) referring to Dr. Shufeldt's work on the pteraclid fish Pterycombus hrama, 

 made this remark " the singular Caristius, lately described from Japan by Dr. 

 Smith, is an ally of Pterycombus and belongs to the same family." 



In the same month, Regan (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 8, Vol. X., Dec, 1912, 

 p. 637), expressed a belief that Caristius japonicus Gill and Smith, and Platyberyx 

 opalescens Zugmayer (Res. Camp. Sci., Monaco, XXXV, 1911, p. 101, PI. 5, fig. 5), 

 were " probably congeric and perhaps not specifically distinct " and that they both 

 were referable to the berycoid fishes. As Mr. Regan had no specimens of either 

 of these forms it is not surprising that he should have regarded the two as related. 

 Caristius and Platyberyx have no more in common than a superficial resemblance, 

 and Caristius is certainly not related to the berycoid fishes. Its affinities seem 

 obviously to be with the scombroid forms, especially with Pteraclis, the genus in 

 which Bellotti placed it. 



