Cope.] ^* [Jan. 5, 



On the Fishes obtained by the Naturalist Expedition in Rio Grande do Sul. 



By E. D. Cope. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, January 5, IS94..) 



The fishes of the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul have been 

 locally studied by Hensel (1868-70) and Von Jhring (1898), so that they 

 are better known than those of some other parts of South America. The 

 latest enumeration, that of Von Jhring, includes forty- nine species. The 

 present report includes forty-one species, of which twenty are not found 

 in Von Jhring's list. Perhaps three of these are enumerated by that 

 author under different names, so that this paper adds perhaps seventeen 

 species, bringing the whole number to sixty-six species. The number of 

 species in Von Jhring's list wiiich I have not found in this collection is 

 thirty. This wide diversity in the collections is probably due to the fact 

 that those studied by Hensel and Von Jhring were made much nearer the 

 coast, while my collection was obtained in the interior near the moun- 

 tains. The absence of various species of the lower and tide waters from 

 my collection, together with the presence of species of the smaller 

 streams, may be thus accounted for. A summary of the results will be 

 given at the end of the paper. 



The collection now reported on was made by Mr. H. H. Smith, who 

 was sent to Bi-azil in the interest of the American Naturalist. A report 

 on the Mammals was made in that periodical in the year 1889 ; and re- 

 ports on the Reptiles and Batrachia have been published in the Proceed- 

 ings of this Society for 1884 and 1887. 



PLECTOSPONDYLI. 



ChARACINID/E. 



Macrodon tareira B1. and Schn. 



Authors who think, with the American Ornithologists' Union, that 

 scientific nomenclature may record error instead of truth, call this well- 

 known South American species, 3Iacrodon malabaricus, because Bloch 

 described it first under that name, under the mistaken idea that it was a 

 native of India. 



XiPHORHAMPHUS BRACHYCEPHALUS Sp. nOV. 



Teeth of the maxillary bone small, equal. Head short, body deep, 



scales large. Depth of body entering length without caudal fin, 



10 

 three times ; length of head in the same four times. Scales 51 . Fin 



6 



radii, D. 11 ; A. 27. Muzzle short, entering length of head 3.5 times ; 

 diameter of eye entering the same four times ; iuterorbital space con- 

 vex, its width entering length of head 3.5 times, hence equal length of 

 muzzle. The profile is slightly descending and nearly straight. The 



