[73] FLOUNDERS AND SOLES. 297 
This is one of the largest of the American flounders, reaching a weight 
of 15 to 20 pounds. Of the small-mouthed flounders, it is considerably 
the largest species known. It isan excellent food-fish, and from its size 
and abundance it is one of the most important of the group in the re. 
' gion where it is found, constituting half the total catch of flounders on 
our Pacific coast. It lives in shallow water and sometimes ascends the 
larger rivers. It is one of the most widely distributed of all the floun- 
ders, its range extending from San Luis Obispo, where it was obtained 
by Jordan and Gilbert, to the mouth of the Anderson and Colville Riv- 
ers on the Arctic coast, where it was observed by Dr. Bean. A speci- 
men from the island of Saghalien in Asia is in the museum at Cam- 
bridge. 
Genus XXX VII.—MICROSTOMUS. 
Microstomus Gottsche, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1835, 150 (lalidens) (not Microstoma 
Risso, 1826). : 
Cynicoglossus Bonaparte, Fauna Italica, 1837, fase., xix (eynoglossus Nilsson, not of L). 
Cynoglossa Bonaparte, Catalogo Metédico Pesci Europei, 1846, 48 (microcephalus) 
not Cynoglossus Hamilton, 1822). 
Brachyprosopon Bleeker, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Amsterd., xiii, Pleuron, 7, 
1862 (microcephalus). 
Cynicoglossus Jordan and Gilbert, Syn. Fish. N. A., 1882, 460 (microcephalus). 
TyPE: Microstomus latidens Gottsche= Pleuronectes kitt Walbaum. 
This genus is widely separated from Platessa and its allies by its 
greatly increased number of vertebrie, a character accompanied by a 
similar increase in the number of fin-rays. Jt is close to Glyptocepha- 
lus, but the lack of the cavernous structure of the bones of the head, 
a structure peculiar to the species of that genus, sufficiently distin- 
guishes it. Two species are known, small flounders of the Arctic seas, 
inhabiting considerable depths. 
We here retain the generic name Microstomus, although in accordance 
with recent usage of most ornithologists and ichthyologist’, it should 
be suppressed, as identical with Microstoma. The two words are from 
the same root and differ only in the termination. But is not this dif- 
ference enough? The code of nomenclature of the American Ornithol- 
ogists’ Union very properly declares that “a name is only a name 
and has no necessary meaning,” and, therefore, no necessarily correct 
spelling, except the spelling selected by the writer from whom it dates 
its origin. As a result of this, the original spelling of each generic 
name is (undoubted misprints aside) the orthography to be adopted, re- 
gardless of all questions as to the correct etymology of the word. 
As a necessary sequence, it seems to us that all generic names, not 
actually preoccupied by names spelled in the same way, should be ten- 
able. There is no other certain boundary line between names tenable 
and names untenable. We propose therefore to regard all generic names 
as available unless used in zoology earlier and in exactly the same or- 
