No. 419. | NOTES AND LITERATURE. 943 
' Check List of the Fishes of Japan. — In the series called dvno- 
tationes Zoologica Japonenses (Vol. II), published by the Zoólogical 
Society of Tokyo under the auspices of the Imperial University of 
Tokyo, Jordan and Snyder give a “ Preliminary Check List of the 
Fishes of Japan." This catalogue is a neatly printed memoir of 
159 pages. 
It includes 686 species, exclusive of species from the Kuriles 
and Riu Kiu, mentioned in footnotes. The known localities in 
Japan are enumerated for each species, and the Japanese vernacular 
name of each is given. These vernacular names, corrected and 
largely compiled by Dr. C. Ishikawa, give the paper à special value 
to Japanese students. 
The paper was in press before the authors planned their expedi- 
tion to Japan in 19oo. In this expedition upwards of 250 species 
were added to the list and a number of changes and corrections will 
be rendered necessary. The total number of species of fishes now 
known from the entire empire is between 1000 and 1100. 
. We may note that the new genus Corusculus (berycoides) is identical 
with the earlier Eteliscus, having the same type The appearance 
in the text of this needless name was the result of accident. 
The paper is *dedicated to Professor Kakichi Mitsukuri of the 
University of Tokyo in recognition of his work as a naturalist and 
of his character as a man." It is to be hoped that this paper, 
Written in America and published in Japan, may help EE the pur- 
pose of bringing Japanese science and that of the nations called 
Occidental into closer touch with each other. D. S.J. 
Notes. — The spouting of the finback whale has been successfully 
observed by Henking (Zool. Anzeiger, Bd. XXIV, pP- moo m 
While off the Norwegian coast. 'The spout is not in any sense a : 
of water, but is a cloud of water particles, a5 maintained first y 
Scoresby, and is driven out of the animal's nostrils by an -i 
not unlike a sneeze. The cloud usually has the outline "s ond 
comma and Professor Henking's paper is noteworthy as con E 
the fi : i ine. 
e first seca drawings of this outline gap e 
The difficulty of ascertaining the exact limits © 
been 
the entoderm i uth cavity of vertebrates has : 
rm in the mo y layer the hypophysis is 
Obstacle in determining from which germ A Me no 
derived. Zeleny (Biological Bulletin, Vol- TI, pp. 267-281) Ms 
i i med before the mout 
found that in turtles this organ 15 for 
through and that it is derived from the ectoderm. 
