406 The Rev. R. T. Lowe on the Fishes of Madeira. 



have been arranged either in Bodianus or Cephalopholis, Bl., but it is 

 really inadmissible into any well-defined or constituted modern ge- 

 nus. It is almost as rare as beautiful. 



Fam. Berycid^. 

 Genus Beryx, Cuv. 

 Beryx decadactylus, Cuv. B. corpore ovali. Into, profunda, 

 altitudine longitudinem capitis superante ; dorso elevato, arcuato, 

 gibbo ; ventre prominente : basi pinna dorsalis elongato, pinnis 

 pectoralibus liaud breviore : oculis maximis : operculi angusti ca- 

 rina obscura : osse humerali angusto, margine posteriore recto, 

 verticali. 



D. 4 + 18 - 20 ; Vs. 1 4- 10 ; &c. 



B. decadactylus, Cuv. and Val., Hist. III. 222. 



B. splendens, nob. quoad icon. Tab. III. in Cam. Phil. Trans., 

 Vol. VI. Part 1 ; baud textus. 



When I published B. splendens as a new species in the Cambridge 

 Transactions, I was unacquainted with the present fish, though it is 

 scarcely perhaps less common than the former. 1 consequently did 

 not discover till long after, that the figure intended for my B. splen- 

 dens had been inadvertently taken by Miss Young from an individual 

 of B. decadactylus, Cuv., of which it offers the more obvious pecu- 

 liarities. The true B. splendens, therefore, yet remains unfigured, 

 and till an opportunity presents of supplying this deficiency in the 

 " Fishes of Madeira," I subjoin its true specific characters, contrasted 

 with those of B. decadactylus. 



B. splendens. B. corpore oblongo, altitudine longitudinem capitis 

 haud cequante : dorso recto : basi pinnce dorsalis brevi, pinnis pec- 

 toralibus breviore : oculis magnis ; operculi lati carina prominente : 

 osse humerali dilatato, margine posteriore arcuato, obliquo. 



D. 4+ 13- 15; V. 1 -f 10- 13 (1 + 11 fere); &c. 



B. splendens, nob. Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1833. 1. 142. Cam. Phil. 

 Trans. VI. 1. 197; excl. icon. — Syn. Mad. Fishes in Trans. Zool. 

 Soc. Vol. ii. p. 174. 



Trachichthys pretiosus, nob. 



Hoplostethus mediterraneus, Cuv. and Val. IV. 49G. t. 97. bis. 

 Rariss. 



This fish is unquestionably congeneric, if it is not even still more 

 closely allied with Trachichthys australis of Shaw. Hence the above 

 adoption of the older generic appellation, aflFbrding opportunity for 

 the substitution of a less restrictive specific title ; better suited to a 

 fish : proved by the occurrence of two individuals in these Atlantic 

 seas not to be peculiarly Mediterranean. 



To the Sub-Percidous family Berycidce belongs also Polymixia ; 



