Melanostigma gelatinosum, Gunther

Goode, G. B. & Bean, T. H., 1883, Reports on the results of dredging under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, on the east coast of the United States, during the summer of 1880, by the U. S. coast survey steamer “ Blake, ” Commander J. R. Bartlett, U. S. N., commanding., Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 10 (5), pp. 183-226 : 209

25. Melanostigma gelatinosum, Gunther .

Melanostirjma gelatinosum, Guenther , Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1881, Part 1, Jan. 4, p. 21 (genus, p. 20), PI. II. fig. A.

A single greatly mutilated specimen, 103 mm. long, was obtained.

It has since been taken by the U. S. Fish Commission, in the deep water ofF Martha’s Vineyard.

This species was described from a specimen obtained, January 16, 1880, by Dr. Coppinger, of H. M. S. Steamer " Alert/' at Tilly Bay in the Straits of Magellan, in 24 fathoms. Dr. Günther remarks {op. cit., p. 21), "The fish is evidently habitually living at a greater depth than that at which Dr. Coppinger happened to obtain the single specimen in his collection." This does not seem to us to be necessarily a logical conclusion, since, as is well known to those who have studied the distribution of deep-sea forms in the 'Western Atlantic, those which are found at great depths in temperate seas are shore inhabitants in seas near the poles.