224 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXV. 
all of the material then available — when the number of currently 
recognized forms was raised from six to twenty-one. Dr. Merriam’s 
work, however, cleared the way for a better conception of the group, 
rectifying important errors of nomenclature and making known many 
new forms. Mr. Osgood, with fifteen times this amount of material, 
seems to have settled all of the remaining doubts regarding the appli- 
cation of certain early names, and, besides coórdinating the work 
of his predecessors, has immensely extended our knowledge of the 
group. The paper is admirable from every point of view and does 
great credit to its author. TAA 
The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Fishing Board for Scot- 
land. — In this report Thomas Scott gives an interesting local list 
of the fishes of the Firth of Clyde. The determination of species 
seems to be accurate, and the nomenclature is more modern than 
usual in British lists. 
Mr. H. C. Williamson attempts by means of very many measure- 
ments to ascertain whether a racial difference exists between the 
mackerel of the east and west coasts of Scotland. He uses the 
means employed for the distinction of races among men and lately 
used by Heincke for the definition of races of herring. The Mean, 
the Probable Error of the Mean, and the Standard Deviation are 
derived from the formula given in Davenport’s Statistical Methods. 
By these mathematical means the alleged variation in the mack- 
erels of Scotland is elaborately investigated, with negative results, 
the races not being sufficiently marked to require recognition. 
Mr. H. M. Kyle, of St. Andrews, has a suggestive and valuable 
discussion of the origin and mutual relations of the different groups 
of flounders and soles. The arrangement adopted agrees in general 
with that of Jordan and Evermann, which is based largely on earlier 
researches of Dr. Gill. He would differ from Jordan and Evermann 
in reducing somewhat the number of genera, and in separating the 
Paralichthys type as a subfamily distinct from Hippoglossine. To 
this subfamily, which he calls Hippoglosso-rhombinz, he would add 
the allies of Syacium and Citharichthys. The soles constitute in his 
view three additional subfamilies, Achirinz, Soleinz, and Cyno- 
glossinzm. The affinities of these groups are obscured by making the 
soles a distinct family, the three subfamilies being separately reduced 
or degenerated groups of flounders. To all this there is no serious 
objection, though Citharichthys and its allies seem to us rather closer 
to the Psettine (or Rhombinz, as Mr. Kyle prefers to call them, 
