VI PREFACE. 



our account of the CV/*//-"/v//V,r. I'rof. S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois 

 Laboratory of Natural History, lias furnished numerous notes on the 

 r< /v/V/r and Ciiprhihlir of Illinois, i'rof. Felipe I'oey, of Havana, lias 

 given valuable inl'onnatioii in regard to the fishes of the Florida Ke\s. 

 Professor O. P. Hay, of llutler I'niversity, has furnished us manuscript 

 descriptions of specie- new to science. Miss Rosa Smith, Mr. Joseph 

 Swain, and especially Mrs. Susan B.Jordan, have given important per- 

 sonal assistance in the verification of the descriptions in our maim 

 scripts. 



Finally, \ve may refer to the early encouragement received from Dr. 

 Elliott Cones, \\-hose advice and example led us to undertake to do for 

 American Ichthyology, so far as lay in our power, what Cones* "Key 

 to Xorth American Birds" has done for American Ornithology. 



A Bibliography of North American Ichthyology is soon to be pub- 

 lished by Professor Goode. We have therefore not attempted to give 

 a list of the works consulted by us. We have endeavored to examine 

 everything pertaining to American Ichthyology. 



Under the head of each species, enough synonymy has been given to 

 connect this work with other descriptive works, and no more. Ret. i 

 ence is made to the original description of each species, to the descrip- 

 tions in Dr. G itnther's "Catalogue of the Fishqsof the British Museum," 

 and to other works in which special information is given or in which 

 some name different from the one adopted by us is employed. 



This work was iirst prepared for the press in ]S7<). during which year 

 a portion of it was printed. Since then the printing has been several 

 times interrupted, chiefly by the absence of the authors while engaged 

 in field-work. Jt was finished in September, 1882. The manuscripts 

 imprinted have been from time to time revised, and each part lias been 

 brought up to the date of finally leaving our hands. The fad that the 

 priming has extended over more than three years, three of the most 

 active years in the history of American Ichthyology, will account for 

 some discrepancies between the first and last parts of the work, in the 



Addenda, we have included the species which have been described 

 Since the priming of the accounts of the families to \\hich the\ re- 

 spectively belong. 



DAVID S. JORDAN. 

 CHAELES H. GILBERT. 

 INDIANA l'.xi\ EESITT, 



,. /,/,/., September \-\. 



