[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 is an 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 Avas 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 XXXVII.— MICROSTOMUS. 



Microstomus Gottsche, Wiegmann's Archjv, 1835, l. r >0 (latidens) (not Microstoma 



Risso, 1826). 

 Cynicoglossus Bonaparte, Fauna Italica, 1837, fasc, xix {cynoglossus Nilsson, not of L). 

 Cynoglossa Bonaparte, Catalogo Metodico 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 Mtt Walbaum. 



This genus is widely separated from Platessa and its allies by its 

 greatly increased number of vertebrae, a character accompanied by a 

 similar increase,in the number of fin-rays. It 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 ge*uus, sufficiently distin- 

 guishes it. Two species are known, small flounders of the Arctic seas, 

 inhabiting considerable depths. 



We here retain the generic na>me Microstomus, although in accordance 

 with recent usage of most ornithologists and ichthyologists, 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- 



