29 



Labrosomus capillatm, Gill, op. cit. 107. — Poev, 1. c. 



Lepisoma cirrhosum, DeKay, New York Fauna, Fishes, 1842, 41, pi. xxx, f. 94.— Stoker. 

 Syn. Fish. N. Am. 49. 



Very couimou under stones in tide-pools and in crevices; their habits 

 closely resembling those of the " Rock-eel" {Murccnoides mucronatus), 

 so familiar to naturalists on the New England coast. Some individuals 

 are brilliantly colored with red beneath, while others are gray. These 

 differences are most probably sexual. My largest specimens are four 

 inches long. The species is recorded from the Antilles, Bahia, Gorea, 

 and the National Museum has specimens from Florida. 



SALAEIAS TEXTILIS, Q. <& G. 



Salarias textilis, QuoY & Gaimard, MS. — Cuvier & Valencienkes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. 



xi, 307. 

 ? Salarias vomerinus, Cuv. & Val., op. cit. .349. 

 Salarias vomerinus (Cuv. «fe Val. ?) Jenyns, Zool. Voy. H. M. S. Beagle, Fishes, 1842, 88, 



pi. 17, f. 3. 



This species, found in tide-pools in company with the preceding, ap- 

 pears to be identical with that brought by Quoy and Gaimard from the 

 Isle of Ascension. The measurements do not agree precisely with those 

 given by Valenciennes (which are expressed in very general terms) ; its 

 colors, however, are precisely the same. It agrees in many points with 

 the specim'ens collected by Darwin at Porto Praya, and provisionally 

 referred by Jenyns to Salarias vomerinus, C. & V. 



The Bermuda specimens have the vomerine teeth and the four ventral 

 rays, the omission of which in the description of Salarias textilis was 

 Jeuyn's chief reason for not referring the Cape Verde specimens to that 

 species. The affinities of S. textilis and S. vomerinus, always considered 

 close, have some light thrown upon them by the discovery of vomerine 

 teeth in the former. The question of their identity, however probable it 

 may seem, must be decided by the comparison of a larger series of speci- 

 mens. Such study will probably result in the establishment of a new 

 genus for the reception of the species at present referred to Salarias, 

 which possess vomerine teeth. 



A detailed description of the Bermuda specimens is given for conve- 

 nience in future comparisons. The greatest height of the body, at the 

 beginning of the dorsal, is slightly less than one-sixth (0.16) of the 

 extreme length, and is four-fifths of the length of the head ; the height of 

 the lowest part of the caudal peduncle equals one-half the greatest 

 height of the body (0.08). The head measures one-fifth (0.20) of total 



