1865.] MR. J.¥.JOHNSON ON A NEW TRICHIUROID FISH. 437 
crotus with imperfectly formed finlets, showing a closer approach to 
a fully developed Prometheus atlanticus than D. armatus. 
After attentively considering the descriptions of the species placed 
by Dr. Giinther under the genus Thyrsites (Brit. Mus. Cat. ii. 350), 
as well as some of the fishes themselves, it appears to me that a more 
satisfactory arrangement would be to distribute the species amongst 
three genera, thus :— . 
1. Tuyrsites. Fishes having teeth on the palatines, perfect 
ventrals, finlets, and a skin naked or furnished with simple scales. 
T. atun, C. & V., and T. lepidopoides, C. & V. 
2. Ruvettus. Includes a single very distinct species, remark- 
able for having a keeled abdomen, and the skin everywhere furnished 
with bony bodies, each bearing several spines—possessing also teeth 
on the palatines, perfect ventrals, and finlets. 
Ruvettus pretiosus, Cocco. 
3. Prometuevs. Distinguished by having each ventral reduced 
to a single spine, as well as by having teeth on the palatines, finlets, 
and a skin either naked or furnished with simple scales. 
P. atlanticus, Lowe; P. solandri, C. & V.; P. prometheoides, 
Bleek. 
The genus Gempylus is distinguished from all these by the absence 
of teeth from the palatines. 
To return for a moment to Ruvettus pretiosus (‘ce curieux, ce 
précieux poisson,”—Valenciennes), the ‘ Escolar” of Madeiran 
fishermen, it may be noted that, although one of the characters given 
in the ‘ British Museum Catalogue’ is the want of a lateral line, this 
line may be made out in fishes fresh from the sea. It commences 
on a level with the upper border of the opercle, but at some distance 
behind it, and then descends gently until it arrives at the middle of 
the height of the fish, which position it keeps on the posterior half 
of the body. 
May 23, 1865. 
John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 
Mr. Sclater called the attention of the Meeting to a rare and inter- 
esting Parrot lately presented to the Society’s collection by Mr. P. 
N. Bernard, being an example of the Chrysotis augusta (Psittacus 
augustus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 80) from the West-Indian Island 
Dominica. Mr. Bernard stated that this Parrot was very rare in 
Dominica, being seldom seen, and that only one or two were caught 
during the year ; its abode was in the very centre and most moun- 
tainous part of the island. Mr. Bernard was well acquainted with 
