Zoological Society. 49 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



November 26, 1850.— R. H. Solly, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



An Account of Fishes discovered or observed in Madeira 

 SINCE the year 1842*. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A. 



Family Zenid^e. 



1. Zeus conchifer. Lilacino-cinereus, capite inenni ; thorace 

 pinnaque dorsali analique utrinque scutatis ; spinis dorsalibus 

 anterioribus brevissime Jilamentosis ; pinnis venti'ulibus 1+5- 

 radiatis ; caudali lunata. 



D. 9 V. 10 + 25 V. 26 ; A. 2 + (1 + 25 v. 26) ; P. 13 ; V. + 5 ; 



C. ^"' "^•"'"^' ; M. B. 7 ; Vertebrae, 13 abd. + 21 caud. = 34. 

 l+I.+VI. 



An example of this very fine new Dory was communicated, with a 

 short notice, to the Zoological Society in 1845 f. The row of large 

 and remarkable naked bony scutellse on each side, at the base of the 

 dorsal and anal fins, and along the breast or ventral line, aiford a very 

 striking character. They resemble the depressed shells of a Fissu- 

 rella seen in profile, and are beautifully radiato-striate, with a bright 

 iridescent rose or lilac lustre, like the inside of a Trigonia. The 

 umbo forms a smooth short strong spine or recurved prickle. The 

 dark thumb-mark on the middle of the sides is present, as in Z. Gal- 

 lus, L. Three examples only have occurred, measuring from eighteen 

 inches to a little more than two feet in length. 



The supposed affinity between Zeus and Oreosoma, Cuv. J, is much 

 corroborated by this fish. 



2. Argyropelicus Olfersii. {Sternoptyx Olfersii, Cuv. R. 

 An. (2nd edit.) ii. 316. t. 13. f. 2.) 



A single example, caught with a boatscoop on the surface of the 

 water in the Bay of Funchal, June 6, 1845. 



The name of Flexirothysis, proposed in the ' Fishes of Madeira,' 

 p. 64, for this portion of the Cuvierian genus Sternoptyx, has been 

 anticipated by that of Argyropelicus, previously assigned to a Medi- 

 terranean species by the Italian naturalist Cocco, and adopted in the 

 ' Fauna Italica ' by the Prince of Canino. 



I have now succeeded in obtaining both the Cuvierian species of 

 Sternoptyx in this part of the Atlantic ; though St. diaphana (Le St. 

 d'Herman, Cuv.) cannot, like Arg. Olfersii, be perhaps fairly claimed 

 at present to belong to the Madeiran fauna §. 



The Atlantic and Mediterranean species of Argyropelicus may be 

 thus distinguished : 



Arg. Olfersii, Cuv. Corpore altiore, altitudine diinidium lon- 



* Ann. Nat. Hist. S. 1. vol. xiii. p. 300. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. part 13. p. 103. J Fishes of Madeira, Preface, p. xii. 



§ Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 393. 

 Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. x. 4 



