PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 361 



BTOTE: OIV PLATESSA FERRCOBIVEA, D. B. STORER, ATSO PLiATESSA 

 ROSTRATA, H. R. STORER. 



By G. BKO^VIV OOODE mad TAKLETON II. BEA]\. 



Ill a paper on the Fishes of Nova Scotia and Labrador, published iu 

 1857,* Mr. H. R. Storer described a species of flounder under the name 

 Platcssa rostrata. This species has been a puzzle to ichthyologists. Dr. 

 Giinther, in 1862, ventured the remark, that it "apiiears to be allied to 

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

 genus Mysopsetia, and in 1804 to Limanda.X While investigating- the 

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

 States Fish Commission made especial efibrts 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 summer.§ In 1878, several sj)ecimens were trawled in Massachu- 

 setts Bay, which were strongly suggestive of Storer's Platcssa rostrata, 

 and which, upon comparison with his description, were found to agree 

 with it in every particular except that iu relation to the relative size of 

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

 of the lateral line, a matter apparently 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. R. Storer, should bo 

 ideutjlied with Platessa ferruginea, D. H. Storer, a species which shoidd 

 undoubtedly be referred to the genus Limanda of Gottsche. Limanda 

 was established by Gottsche in 1835 in Wiegmann's Archiv fiir Natur- 

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

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

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

 obhque" (instead of "moderately oblique"). 



* Obsorvatious ou the Fislics of Nova Scotia and Labrador, witli Descrij)tiou8 of New 

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

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



t Catalogue of the Fishes iu the British Museum, iv, 1862, p. 447. 



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



$ Regarding the habitat of Platvssa rostrata, Storer -wrote as follows: "With the 

 oxcei)tiou of oue specimen at Red Bay, this species was mfct with ouly at Bras d'Or, 

 where it is very abuudaut, iuhabitiug however a far different region from tho 

 (Platessa) idana just mentioned. Instead of sheltered bays and harbors, it delights in 

 tho surf of the ocean beaches oxi)osed to tho waves of tho whole Gulf, and is her© 

 taken in great numbers at tho drawing of the herring seines." — Op. cit. p. 269. 



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



