PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 361 



NOTE 0> PLATESSA FERKl'GINEA. ». 15. STOKER. AND PLATESSA 

 ROSTRATA, II. R. STOREB. 



By G. BROWN GOODE aiad TARLETON 21. BEAN. 



In a paper on the Fishes of Nova Scoria and Labrador, published in 

 18.37,* Mr. H. E. Storer described a species of flounder under the name 

 Platessa rostrata. This species has been a puzzle to ichthyologists. Dr. 

 Giinther, in 1802, ventured the remark, that it "appears to be allied to 

 Pleuronectes limanda. v f Professor Gill, in 1801, referred it to his nominal 

 genus Myzopsetta, and in 1801 to IAmanda.% While investigating the 

 fauna of the Xova Scotia coast in 1877, the naturalists of the United 

 States Fish Commission made especial efforts to find this species, but with- 

 out success, which was a matter of some surprise, since nearly all the spe- 

 cies recorded from the Gulf of St. Lawrence were observed in the course 

 of the suinmer.§ In 1878, several specimens were trawled in Massachu- 

 setts Bay, which were strongly suggestive of Storer's Platessa rostrata, 

 and which, upon comparison with his description, were found to agree 

 with it in every particular except that in relation to the relative size of 

 the scales on the superior portion of the operculum and the neighborhood 

 of the lateral line, a matter apparently of individual variation. A more 

 extended study of the subject has convinced us that the individuals at 

 first studied, as well as the ones described by H. E. Storer, should be 

 identified with Platessa ferruginea, D. H. Storer, a species which should 

 undoubtedly be referred to the genus Limanda of Gottsche. Idmanda 

 was established by Gottsche in 183-j in YYieginann's Archiv fur Xatur- 

 geschichte (p. 100), and is synonymous with Myzopsetta, described by 

 Professor Gill in 1801, j| distinguished by him from Limanda by the fol- 

 lowing characters: ••snout refuse " (instead of "conic"); "mouth very 

 oblique 7 ' (instead of " moderately oblique"). 



* Observations on the Fishesof Nova Scoria and Labrador, with Descriptions of New 

 Species. By Horatio R. Storer. p. 268, pi. viii, fig. 2. < Boston Journ. of Nat. Hist., 

 vi, 1857, pp. 247-270, pi. vii, viii. 



t Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, iv/1862, p. 447. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, p. 217. 



$ Regarding the habitat of Platessa roslrata, Storer wrote as follows: "With the 

 exception of one specimen at Red Bay, this species was met with only at Bras d'Or, 

 where it is very abundant, inhabiting however a far different region from the 

 (Platessa) plana just mentioned. Instead of sheltered bays and harbors, it delights in 

 the surf of the ocean beaches exposed to the waves of the whole Gulf, and is here 

 taken in great numbers at the drawing of the herring seines." — Op. cit. p. 269. 



II Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, p. 216 (in synopsis). 



