1885.] PEOCEEDINGS OF UnItP^D STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 223 



genus was not as well constituted as that of the preceding author. It 

 included species belonging to different genera, to either of which the 

 name, so far as its author was concerned, might equally well be applied. 

 That Eaflnesque had already founded a genus containing a portion of 

 that of Blainville, however, would leave the name given by the latter 

 applicable to species placed under it by him which did not belong to 

 Eafinesque's genus, Dasybatua. 



Trygon, 1817. 



On page 136 of volume second of the first edition of the R^gne An- 

 imal, Cuvier gives the name Trygon to the genus of the Pastinacas. 

 From all that has been gathered on the subject, this, after the time of 

 Linn6, appears to be the first publication of the name in this connec- 

 tion. The autJjor credits it to Adanson, but without indication of place: 

 " Les Pastenagues (Trygon Adans.)." I find no mention of the 

 name by Adanson previous to that in the " Cours d'Histoire Naturelle," 

 ii, 170, published in 1845. Probably Cuvier received it from the MSS.; 

 subsequent writers have accepted it on his authority. His genus being 

 identical with that of Eaflnesque, it is evident that if the first publi- 

 cation of the name Trygon is that of 1817 it is only a synonym of Dasy- 

 hatns. The absence of references, in the first edition, to Eafinesque's 

 work indicates that it had not reached Cuvier at the time he was writing 

 the Eegne Animal. The edition of 1829 contains many references, but 

 makes few changes on account of i^riority. Eichwald and later writers 

 also use the name, crediting it to Adanson, but cite no place of publica- 

 tion. When references to Adanson's work have been given they cite 

 the " Cours d'Hist. Nat.," the date for which is r841-'45. 



It remains to give attention to one other publication brought for- 

 ward by authors to secure priority for the name Trygon. Geoffroy, in 

 the " Description de I'Egypt," applies the name to a couple of species. 

 If the date on the title page, 1809, was that of the entire work it would 

 antedate that of Eafinesque. Though begun in that year, the book was 

 under way nearly twentj'^ years before reaching completion. The por- 

 tion of the text containing the fishes of the Eed Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean was written in 1825 or later. It contains citations from Eisso, 

 1810, from Cuvier, 1817, and from the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 

 1825. It was published in 1827. The portions of the work relating to 

 the fishes appeared in the following order: in 1808, the plates of the 

 Fishes of the Nile; in 1809, the text of the Fishes of the Nile, "compre- 

 nant le Polypt^re, les Tetrodons et plusieurs Salmonid^s"; in 1817, the 

 balance of the plates of the fishes, those belonging to the Fishes of the 

 Eed Sea and the Mediterranean, among which were those of interest in 

 this communication; and it was not until 1827 that these latter plates 

 were followed by the text pertaining to them, that of the "Poissons de 

 la mer Eouge et de la M^diterran^e," in which are described two spe- 



