446 DE. GtJNTHEE ON THE FISHES OF CENTEAL AMEEICA. 



cliaracters of these two and of three other allied species (see ' Fishes,' iv. p. 27) ; I had 

 no faith whatever in these distinctions ; but, to allow others interested in the sabject to 

 judge for themselves, I admitted into my account those MS. notes in the form in which 

 they were sent to me. 



I was rather surprised to find in an article written by Mr. Gill a short time after- 

 wards (Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1863, p. 218) the assertion that the specimen sent as 

 "P. bairdii" is not this species, but the young of P. rectifrwimm, " the name, under 

 which the P. bairdii was sent, having doubtless by some accident been shifted to the 

 young of P. rectifrcenum, and the specimen of the former lost." If this be so, it is 

 certainly curious that the " P. bairdii " sent agrees so well with the " P. bairdii " 

 described; and the shifting must have happened to the sender, inasmuch as the 

 number corresponding to " P. rectifrcenum in the accompanying list " is still tied, by a 

 thread drawn through the tail, to one of the specimens ; and two specimens of Poma- 

 centrus only having been then sent, it is fair to assume that the other example was 

 meant for P. bairdii. 



But in the same paper the author goes a step further : P. bairdii is not only men- 

 tioned as distinct, but it becomes one of the types of a new genus, Pomataprion, distin- 

 guished from Pomacentrus by its entire^ praeoperculum. In our series of examples, 

 varying in size from 10 lines to 4|^ inches, I find that the youngest have the praeoper- 

 culum entire, without exception, that in specimens 1\ inches long the praeoperculum 

 is as frequently entire as but very .slightly denticulated, and that the serrature even in 

 the oldest examples is fine and thin. Therefore I continue to regard those specific 

 and generic distinctions of Mr. Gill as utterly valueless, and the names of P. recti- 

 frcenum, P.flavilatus, P. analigutfa, and P. bairdii as referring to specimens of one 

 and the same species. 



The synonymy stands now thus : — 



f Pomacentrus rectifranum, Gill, /. c. p. 148. 



Gill, J flavilatus, Gill, ibid. 



1862. I bairdii, Gill, /. c. p. 149. 



I analigutta, Gill, in Giinth. Fish. iv. p. 27. 



Giiuther, f Pomacentrus rectifrcenum, Giinth. Fish. iv. p. 26. 

 1862. [ Heliastes insolafus, young (10 inches long), Giinth. ibid. p. 61. 

 Pomacentrus rectifrtsnum. Gill, I. c. p. 214. 



flavilatus. Gill, ibid. 



PomataprioH bairdii, Gill, /. c. p. 217. 



Gill, 

 18G3. 



137. Heliastes .maruixatus (C'astelnau). 

 C/iromis afri/ohata (Gill) is, as already stated in Fish. iv. p. 64, identical witli this 

 species. Mr. Gill thinks that it ought to, be kept distinct on account of a " sulphur 

 spot behind the dorsal fin," Proc. x\c. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1863, p. 220. In two specimens 



' "The pra?opercular serrature is abnost ohsohie," (iill, l>^(i2. ]i. 14ii. 



