82 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
for this species was shortly afterwards the subject of a somewhat 
uncalled for article by Dr. Theodore N. Gill, of Washington. 
With all the humiliation of defeat due to the several technical 
errors committed, it is trusted that full atonement has been made 
in their corrections, which were published soon after. For this 
reason I do not take this opportunity of thanking our venerable 
critic for the valuable suggestions to expunge the errors already 
referred to, as I had decided on their monstrousness before he 
had wasted so much of the printer’s ink. A word further as to 
the entirely unnecessary detailed pedantry. Every writer ac- 
quainted with Walbaum knows the status of his work, and thus 
one may err occasionally in the definitions just as our critic has 
in some of his strange interpretations. Much is to be expected 
of the savant, even perfection itself, and when one is_ sub- 
jected to the censure of ridicule which may even approach dan- 
gerously near the opprobrious, well may he pause in the advo- 
cacy of such precepts. 
Manta birostris Fowler, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., April, 
1002, P1332) aicorrection: 
Cephalopterus vampyrus Mitchill, An. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 
P1824) p: 23; Pl.2.ne- a: 
Ceratoptera vampyrus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 829, com- 
piled. 
Cephaloptera giorna Le Sueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 
LV, 1824, p: 115; Pl. 6;figs. 14; 
Manta manatia Fowler, Science, XVII, April roth, 1903, p. 
595- 
Sub-Class ACTINOPTERI. 
True Fishes. 
Membrane bones of head, as opercle, preopercle, etc., developed. 
Skeleton usually bony, sometimes cartilaginous. Skull with 
sutures. Lungs imperfectly developed or degraded to form swim- 
vessel, or entirely absent. Heart developed, divided into an 
auricle, ventricle and arterial bulb. Gills with their outer edges 
free, their bases attached to bony arches, normally four pairs of 
