348 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



currence of the species farther south than Salem, though from the exter- 

 nal resemblance of the male and the young to Pseudopleuronectes ameri- 

 canus, it might easily be overlooked. u Christmas-fish" is another name 

 for the smooth plaice at Salem. 

 U. S. National Museum, December 31, 1878. 



THE IDENTITY OF RHIJfOXEMUS CAUD ACUTA (STORER) GIIX WITH 

 GADl'S COIBRIUS, EINJff. 



By G. BROWN CJ003>E aaad TARLETON II. BEAN. 



In 1848, Dr. David Humphreys Storer described a gadoid fish from 

 Massachusetts Bay, to which he gave the name Motella caudacuta* In 

 1863, a special genus, BMnonemusJ was framed for it by Professor Gill, 

 and the species has since been called Bhinonemus caudacuta (Storer) Gill. 

 After a critical examination of European and American specimens, we are 

 convinced that this species is separated by no valid characters from that 

 described by Linnaeus under the name Gadus cimbrius4 A specimen 

 of the latter in the ^National Museum from Ohristiania, Norway (No. 

 10058, E. Collett), agrees precisely with specimens of B. caudacuta, so- 

 called, from Massachusetts Bay (collected in 1877 and 1878 by the U. 

 S. Fish Commission), in proportions of body and fins, shape of head, 

 numbers of fin-rays, and coloration. The radial formula is misstated by 

 Storer, who gives it D. 53, A. 48, and this evidently misled Professor 

 Gill, who noted that Bhinonemus caudacuta was u very closely related to 

 the Motella cimbria of Europe," but who evidently had at the time of 

 naming the genus never seen a specimen of the species from either side 

 of the Atlantic. Storer's description of color, cited by Gill as separating 

 Ids species from that of Linnams, applies very well to the latter: "the 

 posterior margin of the second dorsal and anal fins, as well as the edge 

 of the caudal fin of a dark slate color." 



The radial formulae of four specimens studied stand as follows: 



10058 (Christiania). D. 50. A. 44. P. 16. V. 5. 



'21918 (Massachusetts Bay). D. 49. A. 43. P. 16. V.5. 



21919 (Massachusetts Bay). D.51. A. 44. P. 16. V.5. 



21919 a (Massachusetts Bay). D.52. A. 45. P. 16. V.5. 



The genus Motella was not proposed in proper form until the publica- . 

 tion of the second edition of Cuvier's Kegne Animal in 1829, although 

 in its French form — Les Musteles — it was applied by Cuvier to the genus 

 in 1817. The name of Eisso, published in his "Europe Meridionale" in I 

 1827, must therefore be used as Professor Gill has indicated.^ 



* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, iii, 1848, p. 5. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philft. 1863 (Sept.), p. 230. 



t Systema Naturae, ed. 12, 1766, p. 440. 



$L. c.p.241. 



I 



