PLATE LXX. 
^i^rnes, as two distinct species ; first following Gmelin in the defcriptioii 
Gadus Brosme, and then placing the Scotch Torsk immediately after 
as a new species, under the name of Scofuus, not being aware that 
iheGmclinian Gadus Brosme, and the Scotch Torsk are the samel 
Dr. Shaw takes occasion to remark, in his account of the Torsk*, 
that in the Gmelinian edition of Systema Naturae, this species is 
described from Muller as having an ovate-acute tail, but that the 
descriptions and figures of other authors uniformly represent that 
part as of a rounded shape. The description and figure of this Fish 
•n Strom’s History of Sondmor, must then have escaped Dr. Shaw’s 
notice, for in that work it is represented as Gmelin mentions, 
'vith an ovate-acute tail ; and it is also described by Strom as being 
nf that form. It is probable that this circumstance, as well as the 
authority of Miiller, might Induce Gmelin to describe the tail as 
above mentioned. But should this be true, Gmelin is not altogether 
Excusable ; for in the works of Afeanius, to which he refers as ex- 
plicitly as to Muller and Strom, the tail is represented of a rounded 
^nrm ; and surely it would have been more advisable, between two 
such authorities, for Gmelin to have avoided mentioning the shape 
the tail in his specific definition (presuming that the fish was 
'Jnknown to him) than to have given an unqualified assent to either 
of those authorities. We even suspect it might be this cir- 
cumstance that misled Dr. Turton; Gmelin having expressly de- 
scribed the tail in his species Brosme, to be ovate-acute, and Pen- 
dant describing the Scotch Torsk with the tail rounded. We arc 
®titisfied the different statements of writers in this respect may have 
* Sh&w’sGeo. Zool. V. 4. p. I. p- 162. 
