1885.] Zoölogy. 1229 
Fishes —D. S. Jordan and S. E. Meek (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 
April 20, 1885) give a list of fishes collected in Iowa and Mis- 
souri, with descriptions of the new species, Motropis gilberti and 
Ammocrypta clara. S. Garman (l. c., April 23) describes as new 
Mylobatis goodei, from Central America; Dasybatus kuhli; D. 
varidens, from Hong-kong; Urolophus nebulosus, from Colima, 
Mexico; U. fuscus, from Niphon n Raya fusca, aiso from Japan; 
Raja senta, from deep water off the coast of Massachusetts, and 
R. jordani, from San Francisco, California. . S. Jordan 
and S. E. Meek (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1885, 44) give the 
synonymy and an analytical key of the American species of 
Exoccetus. The authors admit seventeen species, fourteen of 
which they place in Exoccetus, while the remaining three are 
placed in three other sub-genera. Most of the species have a 
very wide range. Æ. californicus is probably the largest species, 
A study of the skulls and vertebrz of twenty species of Ethe- 
ostomatinz or darters, made by D. S. Jordan and Carl H. Eigen- 
man, has induced the former to replace these little fishes in the 
Percide. “The Etheostomatine are near allies of the Percide, 
and should not form a separate family.” T. H. Bean (1. c. 73) 
describes Plectromus crassiceps, a single example of which was 
taken by the Adsatross at the greatest depth explored, viz., 2949 
fathoms, and three other examples at lesser depths. The same 
ichthyologist describes Aspidophorides giintheri,from Alaska. 
A writer in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission states 
that he has been a witness to the destruction of just-hatched 
trout by mosquitoes. When a young fish came to the surface in 
the sunshine, a mosquito immediately transfixed its brain with its 
proboscis, and held on until the life juices were sucked away, 
when the dead trout floated down stream. The locality was 
the Gunnison valley, Col. Mr. J. A. Ryder has contributed 
to the Proceedings (U. S. Nat. Mus., 1885), a most valuable 
paper upon the development of viviparous osseous fishes. He 
quotes the observations of Girard and Blake upon the Em- 
biotocidz of the Pacific coast, and adding observations of his 
own upon the gravid females of three species, arrives at the 
conclusion that: (1) the hypertrophied hind gut of embiotocid 
embryos, clothed internally with crowded villi of great length, 
has probably a digestive function, enabling the young fish 
to assimilate the nutriment contained in the abundant fluid 
given out by the walls of the ovarian sac; and (2) that the 
great development of the interradial membrane of all the ver- 
tical fins, and the abundance and size of the blood vessels which 
supply that membrane, are mainly for the purpose of effecting 
respiration through the skin. In the later stages of development 
the protruding hind gut commences to diminish in size. In 
Gambusia patruelis each egg and egg-sac has its own indepen- 
dent supply of blood from the mother’s arterial system. The 
