NOTES UPON TWO RARE FLATFISHES (GYMNACHIRUS 

 FASCIATUS GUNTHER AND G. NUDUS KAUP). 



By W. C. Kendall, 



Assistant, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



On January 29, 1903, on station 7438, in Jewfish Bush Lake, 6| 

 miles northwest by north of the west end of Long Key, Florida, in 

 8 feet of water, where the bottom consisted of "coral bar," the U. S. 

 Fish Commission steamer Fish Hawk took in a small "scrape dredge" 

 a specimen of G.fasciatus Gunther, 2h inches long, of which this is the 

 first published record, and the only one of the species since that of 

 the specimen described by Gunther 1 from some unknown locality. 



Giinther's description of G. fasciatus indicates that it differs from 

 G. nudus Kaup only in the number of dorsal and anal fin rays and the 

 presence of a rudimentary pectoral fin on the right side. 



The present specimen agrees essentially with the description by 

 Gunther, but perhaps showing a few more faint crossbars; being oval 

 rather than circular, broadest posteriorly, and having an irregularly 

 curved lateral line, arched somewhat in front, then curving gradually 

 downward, then upward, thence straight to the tip of caudal, and 

 somewhat longer pectoral. 



Head 4; depth 1.81; lower eye 4.28; distance from lower eye to 

 tip of upper jaw 2.70; depth of caudal peduncle 2 in head. Lower 

 pectoral ray prolonged, longer than eye. Eye in pectoral 1.4; D. 68; 

 A. 48; V. 5; P. 2; C. 16. 



Transverse rows of cilia on body white tipped; preopercular and 

 opercular ridges, chin, mouth, and snout fringed with cirri; ventral 

 fringed; strongly fringed in front of dorsal to tip of snout, making it 

 difficult to tell where dorsal begins; tips of dorsal, anal, and caudal 

 rays bifid. 



Color on right side brown with fourteen or more narrow, transverse, 

 darker bars, extending on vertical fins, and plain lighter brownish on 



1 Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, vol. 4, 1802, p. 488. 



Condensed description from Gunther: 



Total length 7J inches; head about 4i (5J in total length); depth about 1£ (2 in total length with cau- 

 dal); D. 6S; A. 50; P. 2; V. 5; pectoral very small, 3 in orbit; jaws hidden in thick skin; lips and left 

 side of head covered with fringes; gill-opening not extending upward as far as pectoral; vertical fins in 

 thick skin. 



Yellowish olive with 14 brown cross bands, as broad as the interspaces, all extending on dorsal and 

 anal, the first across snout, second and third across eye; caudal with 3 brown cross bands; tips of the 

 rays of the vertical fins white. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 40— No. 1814. 



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