FLOUNDERS FROM JAPAN. 375 



and H. e. robustus. The application of trinominal nomenclature to 

 these fishes seems wholly unwarranted, at least at present. Such a 

 usage would indicate that there is but one species of Hippoglossoides 

 in the Pacific, with characters not constantly different in the three 

 forms. According to the current conception of subspecies, it would be 

 further necessary to assume that these three forms have different dis- 

 tribution, and that they intergrade in the area where their ranges 

 interlap. No such intergradation has been demonstrated. In two 

 provinces three species live together, as indicated in the following table. 

 Table to Show the Distribution of the Species of the Subgenus Cynopsctta. 





West cost of 

 U. S. A. 



Bering Sea. 



Kamchatka 



Northern 

 Japan 





X 



X 



X 



X 







X 



X 

 X 



X 

 X 



The Kamchatkan record of propinquus is added on the assumption 

 that H. e. robustus Schmidt is the same. 



The suggestion of Schmidt that the form which he names H. elas- 

 sodon robustus is the northern representative of H. e. elassodon and of 

 H. e. dubius can not be confirmed : on one hand, because elassodon 

 also occurs in Kamchatka and Bering Sea ; on the other hand, because 

 propinquus, to which H. e. robustus Schmidt should probably be 

 referred, was dredged by the Albatross in Aniwa Bay, together with 

 H. dubius. 



So far as known, H. dubius is confined to the fauna of northern 

 Japan, 1 and appears there to represent 2 H. elassodon of the Kamchatkan 



1) Additional records to those already given are Albatross stations 5003 and 5011. 



2) Schmidt has recorded botli species from the Gulf of Tartary. 



