348 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



currence of the species farther south than Salem, though from the exter- 

 nal resemblance of the male and the young to Pseudopleuronectes ameri- 

 canus, it might easily be overlooked. "Christmas-fish" is another name 

 for the smooth jilaice at Salem. 

 U. S. National Museum, December 31, 1878. 



THE IDEIVrSTT OF RffiaNOXEMUS CAUnACUTA (STORER) GILL WITH 



GA»i;S C5MBRHCS, liBXX. 



By «. BKO^VJV OOODE and TARLETOIV H. BEAN. 



In 1848, Dr. David ETumphreys Storer described a gadoid fish from 

 Massachusetts Bay, to which he gave the name Motella caudacuta.* In 

 18G3, a special genus, lihinonemus,] was framed for it by Professor Gill, 

 and the speci s has since been called Bhinonemus caudacuta (Storer) GiU. 

 After a critical examination of European and American specimens, we are 

 convinced that this species is separated by no valid characters from that 

 described by Linnaeus under the name Gadus cimbrhis.f A specimen 

 of the latter in the National Museum from Christiania, Norway (No. 

 10058, II. CoUett), agrees iirecisely with specimens of H. caudacuta, so- 

 called, from Massachusetts Bay (collected in 1877 and 1878 by the U. 

 S. Fish Commission), in proportions of bodj' and fins, shape of head, 

 numbers of fin-rays, and coloration. The radial formula is misstated by 

 Storer, who gives it D. 53, A. 48, and this evidently misled Professor 

 Gill, who noted that Rhinonemus caudacuta was "very closelj^ related to 

 the Motella cimbria of Europe," but who evidently had at the time of 

 naming the genus never seen a specimen of the species from either side 

 of the Atlantic. Storer's description of color, cited by Gill as separating 

 his species from that of Linnteus, applies very well to the* latter: "the 

 posterior margin of the second dorsal and anal fins, as well as the edge 

 of the caudal fin of a dark slate color." 



The radial formulaB of four specimens studied stand as follows : 



1005S (Christiania). D. 50. A. 44. P. 16. V. 5. 



21918 (Massachusetts Bay). D. 40. A. 43. P. IG. V.5. 



21919 (Massachusetts Bay). D. .51. A. 44. P. 16. V.5. 

 21919 ct (Massachusetts Bay). D..5-\ A. 45. P. 16. V.5. 



The genus Motella was not proposed in proper form until the publica- 

 tion of the second Cilition of Cuvier's Eegne Animal in 1829, although 

 in its French form — Les Musteles — it was aj^plied bj^ Cuvier to the genus 

 in 1817. Tlie name of Risso, published in his "Europe Meridionale" in 

 1827, must therefore be used as Professor Gill has indicated.§ 



' Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, iii, 1848, p. 5. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. PhiLa. 1833 (Sept.), p. 230. 



t Systema Natun?, ed. 1-2, 1765, p. 440. 



^ L. c. p. 241. 



