DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 167 



were based on different specimeus, a theory accepted without criticism by later writers, but 

 which we can not believe a true one. 



Kisso was a careful and experienced worker, and it would be unjust to the memory of 

 one of the best Italian ichthyologists to admit that he could be guilty of such au error. 

 Then, too, he states positively that he had only a single specimen. It is much more prob- 

 able that the German typesetter, in the otlice of Wiegmann's Archiv, mistook a "7" for a 

 "9" in Eisso's manuscript. 



Eisso's figure is a good one of a young If. mediterranevs, and his description agrees 

 with it perfectly with the exception of this one figure in the text. 



The specimen described and figured by Giinther under the name ^. mediterraneun is 

 not a Mediterranean form, but one fi'om the southern Pacific, and has been referred by us 

 to a new genus and species. Moreau is in error in referring the figures of Rloch and of 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes to this species (see discussion under Notdcanllninnasux). 



JV. Bonapartii was described under the name N. ■nwditerraneus, by DeFilippi and Verany 

 in 18.57 from a specimen obtained at Nice, and preserved inthe Zoological Museum at Turin. 

 Two others from the same locality, referred by Moreau to this species, are in the Museum 

 in Paris. The TravaUleur and Talisman obtained four additional individuals: one from 

 the coast of Soudan, at a depth of 1,2.'52 meters, and another from the same region at 032 

 meters; two from the Banc D'Arguiu at 1,495 meters. These last have been made the sub- 

 ject of an elaborate description by Vaillant, who also publishes a good figure. 



This species is distinguished from X. se.rsjyinis (Fig. 192 A, B), described by Eichard- 

 son from Australian .seas (Voyage Erebus and Terror, Fishes, 54, pi. xxxii. Figs. 4— 11), and 

 subsequently described by Gunther, who also gives an excellent figure (Challeiiger Eeport 

 XXII, 243, id. LXi, Fig. a), by various characters, most striking of which is the difference 

 in the relationships of the position of the dorsal spines and the soft anal fin. In JV. sejp- 

 «j>(H(.v the dorsal and soft anal do not pass the same vertical, whereas in N. mediterratieus 

 the last three dorsal spines are placed over the anterior part of the soft anal. 



The type of If. medUerraneus from Mce was examined by Giglioli at the Turin Museum 

 in 1882. Its total length is 203 millimeters, and its radial formula D. G/1; A. 12/132?; V. 

 3-4/8; C. 5?. 



Prof. Giglioli informs us that in his "Central Collection of Italian Vertebrata" at 

 Florence he has four specimens of N. Bonapartii, as follows: 

 a. Nice, August II, 1X82. Total leugth 153 millimetcTS. D. 8/1; A. 6-7/120; V. S '6-7; p. 9-10; V. 3-4?. A 



large, curved spine in upper coruer of uioutli on either side. 

 *. Nice, March 7,1891. Total length 205 millimeters. D. 7/1; A. 14-120; V. 3 7; P. 12; C. 4f. Buccal 

 spines hidden in skin. 



c. Nice, June 15, 1892. Tot.al length 203 millimeters. D. 7/1; A. 8V110: V. 3/5-7; P. 10-12. Buccal spines 



large and ](rounuent. 



d. Syracuse, 1855-60?. D. 7/1; A. 11 25; P. 9-10; V. 3/5. 



Another specimen, collected by Bellotti at Messina, December 12, 1882, and now in the 

 Museo Civico at Milan, was examined by Giglioli, who states that it was 104 millimeters 

 long, and had D. 7/1; A. 7/?; V. 3/6; P. 10-12; C. 5?. 



NOTACANTHUS PHASGANORUS, GoonE. (Figure 186.) 



Xotacanthus phasganorus, Goode, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., iii., sig. 31, .535, Apr. 18, 1881.— GiJNTHER, Chal- 

 lenger Report, xxii, 249.— .Jokdan and Gii.bicrt, Bull, xvi, U. S. Nat. Mus., 900.— Vaillant, Exp.Sci. 

 Travailleur et Talisman, 318, et seq. 



A Wotacanthns, with its body a little higher over the ventrals than over pectorals, and 

 comparatively elongated; with its lateral line slightly arched above the pectorals, sinking 

 to median line of body in advance of first dorsal spines, and its last dorsal spine over the 

 fifth from the last anal spine. 



Its body is much compressed, it greatest width slightly more than one-third height of 

 the body at vent. Scales round, thin, flexible, very small upon the head (not wider than 

 the diameter of one of the (h)rsal spines) but upon the anterior half of the body about three 

 times as large, decreasing in size upon posterior half, until upon tail they are smaller than 



