St al 
Dr. A. Giinther on a new Species of Black-fish. 47 
previously drawn a pencil sketch of the fish, which he kindly 
communicated to me as soon as I had informed him that the 
specimen was different from the other known species. It was _ 
evident from this sketch that the head of the specimen had been 
deformed by stuffing, but that the elongated form of its body is 
a natural character. The chief difference, however, from Centro- 
lophus pompilus is in the increased number of the anal rays, 
which amount to thirty in the present specimen, while they 
yary between twenty-three and twenty-five in all the specimens 
of C. pompilus which have hitherto been examined. I have 
therefore no doubt about its specific distinctness, and propose to 
call it Centrolophus britannicus, not because I think it is confined 
to the British seas, but because it has been observed first on the 
British coast. The characters by which the three species of 
Centrolophus may be readily distinguished are, shortly, the 
following :— 
Centrolophus britannicus. The height of the body is one-fifth 
of the total length ; dorsal fin with 45, anal with 30 rays. 
Centrolophus pompilus. The height of the body is one-fourth 
of the total length; dorsal fin with 39-41, anal with 23-25 
rays. 
Deiebloplas ovalis. The height of the body is one-third of 
the total length; dorsal fin with 40, anal with 24-27 rays. 
A further question arises, whether our new species has not 
been indicated by one of the earlier writers, or whether it has 
been confounded under the numerous denominations considered 
as synonyms of C. pompilus. The circumstance that the four 
specimens of the Black-fish observed on the British coast, and 
proved to belong to the genus Centrolophus, have been found on 
the coast of Cornwall, might lead to the unfounded supposition 
that the fish is peculiar to this part of England. I think it 
receives explanation from the fact that the ichthyology of Corn- 
wall has been worked out more compietely than that of any other 
part of the south coast of Britain,—first by Borlase, from the 
papers of Mr. Jago of East Looe, and afterwards by so excellent 
and indefatigable an observer as Mr. Couch. Jago observed 
two of the four specimens caught together m one net; and the 
accurate figure given by Borlase*, and the statements of the 
relative measurements}, of the distance of the commencement 
of the dorsal fin from the snout, &c., afford ample proof that 
those two fishes were not the C. britannicus, but belonged to the 
* Borlase, Nat. Hist. of Cornwall, p. 271, pl. 26. fig. 8. 
Tt Mr. Couch (Yarr. Brit. Fish. 2nd edit. i. p. 180) appears to have mis- 
understood Jago’s description, in which the fish of thirteen inches is repre- 
sented as three-fourths of an inch broad. Jago intended to give a state- 
ment of the horizontal width, and not, as Mr. Couch thinks, of the depth 
of the body. 
