Review of the Fish of Cuba belonging to the Genus Tkisotro- 

 pis, with an Introductory Note by J. Car son Brevoort. 



By Felipe Poey. 



Eeprinted from the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, Vol. IX., March, 1860. 



INTBODUCTOKY NOTE. 



The genus Serranus, as established by Cuvier, brought to- 

 gether a number of fish which had been scattered in at least 

 twelve other genera by various authors. Cuvier divided it into 

 three groups, which, however, are not well defined. In the " His- 

 toire des Poissonsj" vol. ii., 1828, one hundred and seven species 

 are described, collected from all the tropical and subtropical seas. 

 Dr. Albert Giinther, in his Catalogue, vol. i., 1859, describes one 

 hundred and thirty-five species, and enumerates many others 

 which he had not seen or identified. He proposes groups without 

 generic ñames, founded in part on characters that vary with age, 

 and which bring together species that inhabit widely remote seas. 

 Mr. Th. Gil!, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, 1862, p. 236, and in 1865, p. 104, separates the 

 West Indian and Atlantic American species into distinct genera 

 that appear well founded. Professor Poey, of Ha vana, who has 

 done so much for the natural history of Cuba, and who is par- 

 ticularly well acquainted with the ichthyological fauna of that 

 island, has adopted Mr. Gill's genera in his Synopsis Piscium 

 Cubensium. In this catalogue he enumerates forty-nine species 

 of West Indian Serranini. Three are found on the Atlantic 

 coast of the U. S., as far north as New York. No ichthyological 



