1897.] ME. G. A. BOULENGEE ON A GIGANTIC SEA-PEECH. 917 



2. On a Gigantic Sea-Perch^ Stereolepis gigas. 

 By G. A. BouLENGEK, F.R.S. 



[Eeceived September 30, 1897.] 



(Plate LII.) 



Since the publication of the first volume of the new Catalogue 

 of Pishes, the Trustees of the British Museum have acquired, 

 through the kind mediation of Prof. C. H. Gilbert, two specimens 

 of the little-known Stereolepis gigas, Ayres, from the coast of 

 California. I am thus enabled to supplement our knowledge of 

 this fish, especially with i-egard to the skeleton, of which nothing 

 was known beyond the statement, by Hilgendorf, that Japanese 

 specimens {Megaperca ischinagi, Hilg.) have 12 + 14 vertebrae. 



The conclusion arrived at from a comparison of the descriptions, 

 that Megaperca ischinagi is specifically identical with Stereolepis 

 gigas, is confirmed by the study 1 have made of these specimens 

 and their comparison with a photograph of the type of the former 

 species, preserved in the Berlin Museum, for which I am indebted 

 to the kindness of Prof. Hilgendorf. I must particularly insist 

 on this point, since my identification has not been accepted by 

 Jordan and Evermann, who in their ' Pishes of America ' published 

 1896, agree with me only in so far as the generic identity goes, 

 remarking that " Mr. Boulenger is probably in error in placing 

 this Japanese species \_Megape7xa ischinagi^ in the synonymy of 

 Stereolepis gigas." These authors, however, do not seem to have 

 examined many Californian specimens, nor to be aware of the 

 range of their variations, since they ascribe to them "ventrals 

 long, reaching vent," whereas the large specimen before me has 

 these fins rather short and widely separated from the vent, jast as 

 in the Japanese specimen in the Berlin Museum. 



I will first proceed \\'ith a short description of the external 

 characters from the larger Californian specimen, 1*4 metres long, 

 and add a few nptes taken from the photograph of the nearly 

 equally large (over one metre) Japanese specimen. The account of 

 the skeleton which follows is drawn up from a specimen 9 decim. 

 long, with the vertebral column somewhat malformed in its caudal 

 portion. 



Depth of body nearly equal to length of head, 3| times in 

 total length. Crown flat; snout convex, 2| diameter of eye, 

 which is 7 times in length of head and 2| in interorbital width ; 

 lower jaw projecting ; maxillary extending to below centre of eye, 

 the width of its distal extremity nearly equalling diameter of eye. 

 Greater part of head scaly ; maxillary naked ; prseopercle finely 

 serrated ; no opercular spines, they becoming worn and blunt 

 with increasing age. GUI-rakers strong, longest as long as gill- 

 fringes, 8 on lower part of anterior arch. Dorsal XI 9 ; origi- 

 nating immediately behind vertical of axilla ; spinous and soft 

 portions confluent but deeply notched, the former twice as long 

 and only half as deep as the latter; 5th-7th spines subequal, 

 longest, I length of head. Pectoral asymmetrical, rounded, with 



