26 



United States National Museum has specimens from Wood's Hole, Mass., 

 Charleston, S. C, and the Tortugas; it is not recorded from the West 

 Indies. The Turbot attains a weight of five or six pounds ; its flesh is 

 not unpalatable, and its tough, shagreen-like skin is used for polishing 

 purposes. It has a habit of swimming on its side, just at the surface, 

 like the Sunfish {Mola rotunda), and, from this habit as well as perhaps 

 a fancied similarity of its form to that of the European Turbot {RJiombiis 

 maximus), its name appears to have been derived. It no doubt breeds 

 in these waters ; I have seen young individuals not exceeding three 

 inches in length. The species should be compared with Batistes sohaco, 

 Poey. No other species of this subfamily were observed. 



I suppose the "Old-wife," "Ocean-turbot," and."Black-turbot'' of the 

 fishermen to correspond respectively to Balistes vetula, Linne, Canthider- 

 mis maculatus, (Gmelin) Bleeker, and Melichthys buniva (Lac^pede), all of 

 which, as well as Balistes ringens, Linn6, are quite certain to occur in 



ALUTEEA SCRIPT A, {OsbecJc) Bleelcer. 



Unicornis Pisc'is Bahamcnsis, Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carol. Florida, and tlie Bahama Islands, 



ii, 1743, 19, tab. 19. 

 Balistes scrij>tus, Osbeck, Iter. Sin. 1765, 144. — Gmelin, Linne, Syst. Nat. 1, 1788, 1463. 

 Aluteres scriptus, Bleeker, Ned. Tyds. Dierk. iii, 1865, 28 ; Ichth. 1865, 141, tab. 



ccsxvii, 4. 

 Monacanihus scriptus, Guntiier, Cat. Fibb. Brit. Mus. viii, 1870, 252. 

 Lija Trompa, Parka, Desc. Dif. Piez. Hist. Nat. Cuba, 1787, 46, lam. xsii, f. 1. 

 Balistes Lcevis, Bloch, Ichtb. xii, 1797, 63, tab. ccccxiv. — Shaw, Gen. Zool. t. 1804, 



405. 

 Aluterius lcevis, Cuvier, E^gne Animal, 1817. — Cantor, Cat. Malayan Fisb. 355. — 



Bleeker, Verbandl. Batav. Gen. ssiv (Balistidse), 21. — Hollard, Ann. Sci. 



Nat. 1855, 15.— Day, Fisb. Malabar, 1865, 355. 

 Alutera lcevis, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fisb. & Eept. ii, 1839, 327. 

 Aleuteres lcevis, Eichakdson, Voy. H. M. S. Sulpbur, 1845, 131, pi. Isi, f. 3. 

 Balistes Monoceros, var. Lcevis, Schneider, Blocb, Syst. Icbtb. 1801, 463. 

 Balistes ornatiis, ProcIi;, Bull. Pbilom. 1822, 131. 

 Aluteres pareva, Lesson, Voy. Coquille, ii, 1830, 106. 

 Aluterus venosus, Hollard, op. cit. 14, pi. 1, f. 3. 

 Alutera picturata, Poey, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila. 1863, 183 ; Eep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, 



ii, 438. 

 Aleuteres picturatus. Cope, Traus. Am. Pbil. Soo., 1870, 476. 



A specimen twenty -one inches long was taken off the islands in April, 

 1872, The occurrence of the species is so unusual that it has no common 

 name. It appears to be strictly pelagic, and is recorded from China, 

 the Indian Archipelago, Tahiti, New Ireland, Coromandel, the Cana- 

 ries, the West Indies, Brazil, and South Carolina. 



