916 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 78. 



" Whatever way you please " 



" For then you cannot spoil it if you 

 ■wish." 



It was the bonito which Epicharmus 

 sang when he provided for the festive board 



" large plump amise 



"A noble pair i' the middle of the table:" 



The etymology of Aij.ia itself was given by 

 Aristotle, according to Atheuffius ; the spe- 

 cies was called Amia from its going in shoals 

 with companions of the same kind.* 



Amiurus is from a, privative, and iJ-Bwopo^^ 

 curtailed, and not from " dij.ia, Amia, oupd. 

 tail(ed)." 



' Ammocates is not derived from ' o-iip.o'i, 

 sand, y.oirrj (a bed),' which would mean 

 sand bed, but from ap-;j.oi, sand, and ^xuTnig 

 [xoirr] does not have the double meaning 

 '(a bed) abider.'] What might have been 

 intended, was sand abider — app.o? and 

 ocx-riTrji; — which should have been rendered 

 ammceeetes, and ammoccctes would then have 

 been a simple case of metathesis. (The 

 same lapsus, but in an aggravated form, 

 is seen in the case of two well-known 

 genera of birds — Feclioccetes and Pooecetes.) 

 But unfortunately for the hypothesis Du- 

 pieril sanctioned and adopted the name 

 Ammoccetns and the etymology from cippni and 

 zorro?, ' sejour, cuhile.' 



Arthrodira is composed of apOpov, joint 

 and 8£ipTj, neck (not '(?('?, double'), and 

 is so called on account of the j oint-like con- 

 nections between the head and body arma- 

 ture. 



Belo7iorJiynchus is framed directly from 

 jicXuvrj, a point or needle {not ' classic name 

 of garfish ' ) , and poy/."? snout. The ancient 

 greek i3M-^ri was undoubtedly the pipefish, 

 but the name in recent time has been per- 

 verted to the garfish. 



Calamoichthys is from x,dXapo<s (rather than 

 lat. 'calamus'), reed, and t^^'y?, fish; 

 Calamichthys would have been preferable 



* izapa TO apa livai ralg TTapair'XTialaiQ. Athenseus, 



vn., 6. 



because shorter, and accord with classic 

 words, such as z,a)Mp.-auX-q<;, etc. 



Carasskcs is a latinized form of Karass, or 

 Karausche, the German name of the C. car- 

 assiiis; not from ' y/ipaS, classic name of 

 (sea)fish.' 



Cestracion is not from ' x,i<7Tpa/^ classic 

 name of (pavement-toothed) sea fish,' but 

 from Zjiirrpa, a broad-headed poleax (or 

 'malleus, malleator,' according to Klein). 

 Klein applied the name to the hammer- 

 headed sharks, and it was first misapplied 

 by Cuvier to the genus previously named 

 Heterodontus by de Blainville. The fish 

 named xJ.aTpa by the Greeks was better 

 known as the Sphyrcena. 



Chlamydoselachits was the original and 

 proper form of the genus called Chlamydose- 

 lache. leldyrj is the j)lural form and therefore 

 improper ; aiXayoi is the singular. Prob- 

 ably Dr. Dean was misled by Dr. Giinther, 

 who changed it to Chlamydoselache, and he 

 was probably misled by Cuvier, who gave 

 the name Selache to the basking shark. 



Cladoselache should have been called Cla- 

 doselachus. 



Coceosteus is from z^6x,x,o<;, berry (not 

 ' x,u:^Xi<ii, rough like a berry') and Saziov, 

 bone. 



Cyclostomata is a compound of ' zuzAo?,' 

 circle, (not 'circular'), and the plural of 

 ' (TTijpa, mouth.' 



Dipnoi is not from ' di-voo?, double 

 breathing,' but di-voo?, with two breathing 

 apertures. The word occurs in Galen. 



Erythrinus is not directly from ' ipoOpd^;, 

 red-colored,' but from ^pu0p'i'^u?, the old 

 Greek name of the PageUus enjthrinus, and 

 was misapplied to the American genus in 

 sequence of a vicious habit which Linnseus 



* Kscrpa^ in the old editions of Liddell and Scott's 

 'Greek-English Lexicon' (e. g., 1864, p. 755), is de- 

 fined ' a fish held in esteem among the Greeks, doubt- 

 ful whether a pike or a conger, Epich. p. 36, Ar. Nub. 

 339;' it is properly defined in later editions (e. g., 

 1883). 



