J 34 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



In the Journal of the Imperial fisheries Bureau of Japan Dr. 

 Kamakichi Kishinouye presents a monographic review of the 

 Japanese Tai or species of the genus Pagrus. The Tai is per- 

 haps the most valuable fish of Japan, always common, always excel- 

 lent. The fish god, Ebisu, is always represented in Japanese draw- 

 ings as bearing a red Tai, " Akadai," Pagrus major under his arm. 

 Dr. Kishinouye rejects the supposed species Pagrus ruber and 

 describes three valid species, Pagrus major, Pagrus cardinalis and 

 Pagrus tumifrons. Later Dr. Kishinouye (in lit) has announced the 

 discovery that the last named species is a Deutex. Deutex tumifrons 

 has been described by Blecher as Deutex hypselosoma. The descrip- 

 tions are accompanied by excellent colored plates, the work of Mr. J. 



In the Denksehriften of the Academy of Vienna Dr. Franz Stein- 

 dachner gives an account of the fishes and reptiles collected by the 

 naturalist, Princess Therese of Bavaria, on her trip from Martinique 

 to Guayaquil around the coast of South America. Eight new species 

 are described and most of them figured. These are Prionodes or 

 Serranus huascarii from Payta, Pomadasis schyri from Guayaquil, 

 Pontinus dubins from Payta. Mugil eharlot/a- from Guayaquil, Pimelo- 

 della yunceusis from Pacosmayo, Pygidium quechuorum from Arequipa, 

 Loricaria aurea from Bodega, and Leporinus muyaeorum from Santan- 

 der in Colombia. Steindachner adopts the name Doydixodon hevi- 

 frons, referring other nominal species to its synonymy. 



Dr. George A. Boulenger, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society 

 of London discusses the young of the ten known species of Polypterus, 

 with figures of the seven species found in the Congo, showing the 

 peculiar external gill which looks not unlike an " archipterygium." 

 In the young of Polypterus lajradii this gill is half as long as the 

 body, extending backward parallel with the pectoral. 



In the Actes Soc. Sclent, du Chili, Dr. Federico T. Delfin, writes of 

 the voracity of the Chilian hag-hsh ( F.ptatretus dombey). He finds 

 that one example having free opportunity to destroy fishes devoured 

 in seven hours 18 times its own weight of their flesh. This amount 

 was not assimilated but passed through the straight alimentary canal 

 of the parasite, most of it little changed. The species fed to the 

 hag-fish is in another paper described as a new genus of Sciaenida: 

 under the name of Cilas montti. 



