1885.] PROCEEDINGS 01' UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 395 



1. Zeus gallus L. 



Tbis species seems properly referable to the American species of 

 Selene^ although the reference to Willough by belongs to an East Indian 

 fish. The name Selene gallus should be adopted for our s])ecies, if it can 

 be shown that it is not the Zeus vomer, with which it has been uni- 

 versally identified. 



2. Zeus vomer L. 



Goode and Bean say that this " is the species which has long figured 

 in American writings as Vomer setipinnis, which must now be called 

 Vomer vomer.'''' 



The grounds for this statement are not apparent. The Zeus vomer of 

 the tenth edition is based on the BJiomboida of Brown, which is the 

 setipinnis, and on the Zeus cauda hifurca of the Museum of Adolph- 

 Frederick. 



In the twelfth edition the reference to Brown disappears, while a few 

 additional characters are added to the description, which still contains 

 nothing jiositively distinctive. 



I have at present no copy of the Museum Adolph-Frederick at hand, 

 but it seems to me that the name Zeus vomer must go with the fish 

 there represented. Cuvier says : " L'esp^ce de ce poisson u'est sujette 

 a aucun doute, puisque Linnsens lui-meme en a donn^ la figure dans le 

 Mus6e d'Adolphe-Fr6deric, pi. 31, f. 9 ;" and again, " Celle [la figure] de 

 Linnaeus (Mus. Ad. Fred., pi, 31, fig. 9) peche par la rupture des filets 

 de la premiere dorsale." 



If this Zeus vomer of Linnaeus is the species with falcate dorsal, as 

 Cuvier has supposed, the name vomer is prior to that of gallus, and the 

 two species in question should stand, as hitherto, Selene vomer and 

 Vomer setipinnis. If the supposition of Goode and Beau be correct, 

 they would be Selene gallus and Vomer vomer. The question seems to 

 depend on the correct interpretation of the figure in the Museum 

 Adolph-Frederick. 



Pleuronectes plagiusa L. 



The account given by Goode and Bean renders it doubtful whether 

 our Aphoristia is really identical with the Linn£ean type. Our species 

 should in this case apparently stand as A.fasciata (= Plagusia fasciata 

 Holbrook MSS., Dekay N. Y. Fauna Fishes, p. 304). The West Indian 

 Aphoristia ornata seems to be distinct from the species found on our 

 coasts, having the vertical fias black posteriorly, the body rather slen- 

 derer than in ours, the scales a little larger, and the fin rays rather 

 fewer. It may be that this ornata is the original plagiusa. 



Pleuronectes lunatus L. 



This species was originally based solely on a figure of Catesby, rep- 

 resenting Platophrys lunatus. In the twelfth edition the count of the 

 fin-rays is added from the specimen sent by Garden, belonging to a dif- 

 ferent species. 



