82 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE ^lUSEUM. 



for this species was shortly afterwards the subject of a somewhat 

 uncalled for article by Dr. Theodore N. Gill, of Washington. 

 With all the humiliation of defeat due to the several technical 

 errors committed, it i,s trusted that full atonement has been made 

 in their corrections, which were published soon after. For this 

 reason I do not take this opportunity of thanking our venerable 

 critic for the valuable suggestions to expunge the errors already 

 referred to, as I had decided on their monstrousness before he 

 had wasted so much of the printer's ink. A word further as to 

 the entirely unnecessary detailed pedantry. Every writer ac- 

 quainted with Walbaum knows the status of his work, and thus 

 one may err occasionally in the definitions just as our critic has 

 in some of his strange interpretations. Much is to be expected 

 of the savant, even perfection itself, and when one is sub- 

 jected to the censure of ridicule which may even approach dan- 

 gerously near the opprobrious, well may he pause in the advo- 

 cacy of such precepts. 



Manta birostris Fowler, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., April, 

 1903, p. 332, a correction. 



Cephalopferits vampyrus Mitchill, An. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 

 I, 1824, p. 23, PI. 2, fig. I. 



Ceratoptera vampyrus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 829, com- 

 piled. 



Cephaloptera giorna Le Sueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 

 IV, 1824, p. 115, PL 6, figs. 1-4. 



Manta manatia Fowler, Science, XVII, April loth, 1903, p. 

 595- 



Sub Class ACTINOPTERI. 



True Fishes. 



Membrane bones of head, as opercle, preopercle, etc., developed. 

 Skeleton usually bony, sometimes cartilaginous. Skull with 

 sutures. Lungs imperfectly developed or degraded to form swim- 

 vessel, or entirely absent. Heart developed, divided into an 

 auricle, ventricle and arterial bulb. Gills with their outer edges 

 free, their bases attached to bony arches, normally four pairs of 



