520 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Oct., 



THE FISHES OF TRINIDAD, GRENADA, AND ST. LUCIA, BRITISH 



WEST INDIES. 



BY HENRY W. FOWLER. 



In February and March of 1915 Mr. Richard M. Abbott visited 

 various of the Lesser Antilles, and while at the above-named islands 

 made several collections of fishes. Through his generosity, these 

 have all been received as gifts to the museum of the Academy. 



Trinidad. 



The collection from this island is the most extensive. It was 

 made chiefly in the fish-market of Port-of-Spain, from February 27 

 to March 7. The market fishes are all taken in the Gulf of Paria, 

 brought to town, and there disposed of as food. The waters of the 

 Gulf of Paria are continually discolored, so that they have a muddy 

 color. This has been explained as due to the vast quantities of 

 river deposits, silt, etc., carried down the Orinoco and through its 

 delta out into the sea. The shore currents then carry the soiled 

 and less saline waters north into the more or less enclosed gulf, 

 where they apparently are unable to clear. Apparently continuously 

 muddied, the water supports a rich fish-fauna. A few of the larger 

 species were seen in the market, and though carefully noted, were 

 not preserved. They are included below with this reservation. 



No account of the marine fishes of Trinidad has ever appeared. 

 The records of the few species known from the island occur princi- 

 pally as scattered references to material in the British Museum. 

 These will be found in the catalogues by the late Dr. Albert Giinther,^ 

 and in the second edition by Dr. G. A. Boulenger.- Dr. Giinther 

 also described several cyprinodonts in 1868,^ and al)out the same 

 time Hill has some notes. ^ More recently Dr. Barton A. Bean 

 described a flounder from Port-of-Spain.^ 



The first work on the fresh-water fishes was contributed by the 

 late Dr. Theodore Gill in 1858.^ Subsequently it was the subject 



1 Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 1 to VIII, 1858-70. 



2 L.c, Ed. 2, I, 1895. 



3 Proc. Sci. Assoc. Trinidad, 1868, pp. 224-227. 

 *L.c., 1868, pp. 210-223; pp. 227-237. 



^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, 1895, pp. 635-636, fig. 3. 

 Kinn. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., VI, 1858, pp. 363-430. 



