PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



5 



Cybium immaculatum, Cuv. & Val. 



Cybium immaculatum, Cuvier & Valenciennes, op. cit, p. 191— Gunther, op. 

 cit., p. 370, note 5. 



The Cybium immaculatum of Cuvier bas tbe body immaculate in spe- 

 cimens ooly six or seven inches loug. 



Acanthocybium peto, Poey. 



Acanthocybium Petus, Poey, Memorias sobre la Historia Natural de la Tsla de 



Cuba, ii, 1860, p. 234, pi. xvi, fig. 1 ; Repert., ii, p. 363. 

 Vulgo : — Peto. 



This genus differs from Cybium by its numerous dorsal spines, twenty- 

 five in number. The type taken by Professor Gill has the teeth com- 

 pressed, triangular. The Cuban species has the points of the teeth 

 rounded. The caudal is very small. The lower jaw has its sides 

 deeply notched and its extremity lower than its lateral edges. In spe- 

 cimens of less than three feet, the body is covered with vertical bands 

 of a vitreous lustre (glacees). It grows very large, sometimes attaining 

 the weight of one hundred pounds. 



THE CLCPEA TYRANNUS OF LATROBE. 



By G. BROWN OOODE, 



Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, a surveyor of public lands, published, in 

 1802, a description of a clupeoid fish the affinities of which have never 

 been satisfactorily determined.* Dr. DeKay, misled by the name " ale- 

 wife", applied the specific name tyrannus to the northern species known 

 to him by that popular name (Pomolobus pseudoharengus), a usage 

 which was concurred in by Dr. Storer and M. Valenciennes. In his 

 earlier writings, Professor Gill referred the same name to the shad 

 (Alosa sapidissima). Latrobe's paper, and the name therein proposed, 

 have lately been lost sight of; but there is little doubt that they refer 

 to the menhaden, or mossbunker (Clupea menhaden, Mitchill, and Bre- 

 voortia menhaden, Gill). The laws of priority demand that this species 

 shall henceforth be designated Brevoortia tyrannus. I 



The fishes of the Chesapeake and its tributaries have been very little 

 studied until within the past three years, and the habits of the men- 

 haden are so different in these waters and in the north that it does not 

 seem surprising for Northern ichthyologists to have made mistaken 

 identification of Latrobe's specific name. 



A few years ago the Capes of Delaware were thought to define tbe 

 southern range of the menhaden, while its peculiar parasite and its 

 habit of ascending southern rivers were unknown. 



*A Drawing and Description of the Clupea tyrannus and Oniscus prcegustator. By 

 Benjamin H. Latrobe, F. A. P. S. < Transactions of the American Philosophical 

 Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge, vol. v, 1802, p. 77. 



