132 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



Halichoeres tremebundus. All these and several other species are 



3. The Chaetodontidae and related families are next discussed. 

 Twenty-seven species being represented in Japanese waters. The 

 new species are Cyttopsis itea, C/uetodon dccdalma, Holacanthtis ronin, 

 and Coradion desmotes. The first-named species, itea, should not 

 have been placed in Cyttopsis, as it has the ventral rays I, 9, and 

 the breast broad and flat, with feeble plates. It is made elsewhere 

 the type of a new genus. Zen Jordan, its name becoming Zen itea. 



4. A discussion of the Blennies. This interesting group of fishes is 

 well represented in all the rock pools of the Japanese islands, — 

 the elongate species, with many vertebras in the north ; the short- 

 bodied, tropical forms to the southward. Forty-four species are 

 described, representing twenty-four genera. Of these genera, the 

 following — Zacalles, Azuma, Zoarchias, and Abryois — are here 

 characterized for the first time. Twenty species are described as 

 new, most of these represented by great numbers of specimens, the 

 outlying rocks of Hakodate and Misaki proving especially rich in 

 fishes of this type. The plates are the work of Mrs. E. C. Starks 

 and of Capt. Charles B. Hudson, and deserve especial commendation 



5. The Balistidae and Ostraciidae. Twenty-four species are 

 described, two of them being new. These are Brachat 'uteres ulvarum 

 and Rudarius ercodes. Rudarius is a new genus allied to Monacan- 

 thus. D. S. J. 



Notes on Recent Fish Literature. — In the Bulletin of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology (Vol. XXXIX, No. 3) Dr. C. R. Eastman 



The extraordinary species of Edestus and other extinct forms are 

 thought by Eastman to be consolidated whorls of teeth of cestra- 

 ciont forms. These extraordinary structures have formed a standing 

 puzzle, it being uncertain whether their nature was that of teeth, of 

 fin spines, or. as conjectured by Rarpinsky, of a coiled horn at the 

 tip of the snout. The critical study of these structures by Dr. East- 

 man leaves little doubt that these structures in Edestus, Campyloprion 

 and HeUcoprion are really teeth. 



Dr. Eastman describes a number of fin spines, apparently cestra- 

 ciont, referable to the genus Ctenacanthus. Two new species of 

 Acanthodes, A. marshi and A. beecheri are described from the rich 



