] 70 BATBACHIDiE. 



pressed posteriorly ; skin naked, with many series of very distinct 

 pores. A canine tooth on each side of the vomer. Operculum with 

 a single spine. The spinous dorsal formed by two very small spines. 

 GiU-opening- not narrow, extending downwards to the side of the 

 isthmus. Gills three, psoudobranchia> none, branchiostegals six ; 

 air-bladder more or less deeply divided into two lateral parts. 

 Pyloric appendages none. ( Vertebrae 11/31.) 

 Coasts of America. 



1. Porichthys porosissimus. 



? Niqui, Marcc/r. iv. p. 178 (fig. very bad). 



Bati-achus porosissimus, Cuv. Sf Val. xii. p. 501 ; Jenyns, Zool. Beagle, 



Fishes, p. 99. 



niargaritatus, Richards. Voy. Sulph. Fishes, p. G7. pi. 38. figs. 2-4. 



Porichtlijs notatus, Girnrd in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. vii. 1854, 



pp. 141, 151, and in U. S. R. R. Fxped. Fishes, p. 134 (pi. 25). 



D. 2 I 35-36. A. 32-33. V. 1/2. Vert. 11/31. 



The length of the head is contained foiir times and a half to four 

 times and one-third in the total length. Abdomen with four lon- 

 gitudinal series of pores between the middle of the pectoral fins ; the 

 two antei'ior series convergent anteriorly, forming an acute angle 

 behind the level of the middle of the ventral fins. A triangular 

 blackish spot below the eye ; vertical fins with blackish margins ; 

 dorsal sometimes with some small spots. Each pore shining silvery. 



Coasts of Brazil and Surinam ; Western coasts of Tropical and 

 Temperate America. 



a. Adult. South America. Purchased of Mr. Warwick. 



b. Adult. Brazil. Presented by Lord Stuart. 



c. Fine specimen. Vancouver Islands, Voyage of H.M.S. Plumper. 



The air-bladder is composed of two oblong lateral lobes, united 

 posteriorly. 



This is a very singular, although not isolated, instance of the oc- 

 currence of the same species of fish on both sides of the continent of 

 America, the more so as on the Atlantic coasts it has hitherto been 

 found only between the Tropics, whilst on the Pacific coast it ex- 

 tends far into the temperate region. I have had the opportunity of 

 examining Atlantic and Pacific specimens, and cannot discover any 

 difterences between them. They are, externally, entirely identical, 

 even to the dark spot below the eye. The occurrence of this fish in 

 the Pacific was first noted bj^ Jenyns, who described a si^ccimen from 

 Bahia Blanca ; then by Sir John Richardson, who obtained a speci- 

 men in a bad state of preservation from the Gulf of Fonseca, and 

 described it as B. margaritatus ; and finally by Girard, who gave it 

 a third name. 



Jenyns is not quite certain as to the identity of his si)ccimcn with 

 those from Brazil, as the description of Valenciennes seems to differ 

 in some very unimportant points. The short porous lines below the 

 eye are present in the Eastern specimens as well as in the Western, 



