OCTOBEE 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



543 



FISHES NEW TO THE FA UNA OF SOUTHERN 



NEW ENGLAND RECENTLY COLLECTED 



AT WOODS HOLE. 



During the paat four years a rather 

 large number of fishes, chiefly sub-tropical, 

 have been collected by the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission at Woods Hole; some of these were 

 not previously known on the Middle At- 

 lantic and New England coasts, some had 

 not before been detected in United States 

 •waters, one was new to the western At- 

 lantic, and two were undescribed. Not- 

 withstanding the continuous systematic 

 collecting which has been carried on at this 

 place for more than a quarter of a century, 

 nearly every season yields unlooked-for ad- 

 ditions, the present year being no excep- 

 tion. There are now known from the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Woods Hole 222 species 

 of salt-water and fresh- water fishes ; this is 

 a much larger number than has been re- 

 ported from any other single locality in the 

 United States except Key West, or, in fact, 

 from any State north of Florida. Going 

 back only to the all of 1894, the record of 

 additions to the local fish fauna comprises 

 3 2 species belonging to 10 teleostean families; 

 m^ost of these are so interesting that they 

 will be separately referred to, 5 being new 

 to United States waters. 



The mackerel family {Scomhrldos) , which 

 was already very generously represented at 

 Woods Hole by 10 species, added another 

 member in 1895, when a specimen of long- 

 finned albacore {Germo alalunga), 3 feet in 

 length, was taken in the harbor. This 

 pelagic fish is known from the Pacific, the 

 eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 

 but has apparently not been met with else- 

 where in the western Atlantic. 



Three species of ' butterfly- fishes ' ( Cha- 

 todontidce) , a brilliantly colored family of 

 the tropical seas, have been taken at Woods 

 Hole. One of these, the ' parche ' ( Chceto- 

 don ocellatus), is not rare, being observed 

 here nearly every year and also occurring 



in New Jersey and Rhode Island waters. 

 The ' Portuguese butterfly ' ( C. striatus) is a 

 straggler met with in 1894, one specimen 

 being taken in October ; it is not known 

 elsewhere outside the West Indies. In 

 1897, in August and October, 6 examples of 

 a strikingly beautiful new chsetodont ( C 

 bricei) were obtained. 



Five species of the typical sub-tropical 

 family of snappers (Lutianidw) are now 

 known from Woods Hole as stragglers, two 

 being noticed for the first time in 1897. 

 Besides the red snapper {NeomwniB aya), 

 the schoolmaster (iV. apodus) and the mut- 

 ton-fish {N. analis), there were taken last 

 year in September young specimens of the 

 gray or mangrove snapper (iV. griseus') and 

 the dog snapper (N. jocu) The first of 

 these has been recorded from New Jersey, 

 but is not found in any abundance north of 

 Florida ; the second has not been pre- 

 viously reported north of the Florida Keys. 



One of the most noteworthy captures was 

 a small trigger-fish of the genus Canthider- 

 mis, taken in 1897 ; this is referable to 

 Cope's Balistes asperrimus from the Isthmus 

 of Panama, the type of which, in the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, has 

 been compared with the Woods Hole speci- 

 men. No other examples are known, un- 

 less these prove to be the young of Balistes 

 sobaco of Poey, from the West Indies. 



In 1895 a porcupine-fish {Diodon hystrix) 

 was takeJi in Buzzards Bay near the station. 

 The only other specimens known to have 

 been found north of Florida were taken on 

 the shores of Maryland many years ago. 



The family of marine gars (Esocidce) has 

 three members on the New England coast, 

 one of which (Athlennes Mans) is repre- 

 sented by a large specimen taken at Woods 

 Hole in 1895. This species normally ranges 

 from the West Indies to Brazil, and is not 

 elsewhere recorded north of Florida. 



The 'permit,' or black-finned pompano 

 (Trachinotus cjoodei), described in 1896 from 



