1 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The third period lias resulted from investigations undertaken either direclly 

 or with the a-ssistanee of the I'niti'd States Fish Coniniission and the Smithsonian 

 Institution. Under their auspices Dr. Gilhert made in 1881 large collections of 

 the fishes of Panama, which served as the basis for luinu loiis papers by Jordan and 

 (Jilbert. A second and nuu-h larger eoUectioii, made by him in 1883, was nnfortn- 

 nately destroyed l)y lire, together with all lield-notes and the manuscript report the ii 

 ready for the printer. The only record of this material is embodied in a list published 

 by Jordan (1885). The new species indicated in llmt list remained, I'nr llic iimst 

 part, still undescribed and unrepresented in any museum at a period ten years lat(M! 



The deeper waters oiT the Panama liay, out as far as the Galapagos Islands, 

 were thoroughly explored by the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross 

 in ISSS ;ind 1891. Reports upon the fishes thus obtained have been given by 

 Jordan and Bollman (1889), by Gilbert (1890 b), and recently in most admirable 

 and complete form by (iarnian (1899). 



The following account of the fishes of Panama Bay is based primarily 

 updii material obtained in 189G by an expedition from the Leland Stanford .Inninr 

 Universit}', generously equipped and sent out by Mr. Timothy Hopkins of INIenlo 

 Park, California. The party consisted of ])r. C. H. Gilbert and Messrs. E. C. Starks, 

 C. J. Picrson and R. C. McGregor. During the six weeks (January 10th to Feb- 

 ruary 24th) spent in residence at Panama, an almost hourly inspection of the excel- 

 lent fish-market was maintained; the tide-pools of the reef were explored, and the 

 rocks and islands near the city were investigated by the aid of dynamite. The 

 effectiveness of the party became so reduced by illness during the last weeks of then- 

 stay, that they were unable to carry out that part of their plans which contemplated 

 the exploration of the Pearl Islands on the one hand and the rivers of the Isthmus 

 on the other. These localities offer still a rich field for investigation. Of the two 

 hundred and eighty-three marine species obtained, forty-three were new, and included 

 among them all but four {'ri/losurus sp., Cijnoscion sp., Scams sp., and (Hlharkltthij 

 sp.) of the still undescribed forms of the' list of 1885. Descriptions of many of 

 the new species have already ap[)eared in tlie different volumes of Jordan and 

 Evermann's "Fishes of North and Middle America," and full accounts of all 

 apjiear in the present paper. 



We have admitted to our list all previous records of fishes from Panama Bay, 

 unless good reason exists for doubting their validity. Several general references to 

 "Panama," in Jordan and Evermann's work above cited, seem not to be based upon 

 special records, and arc rejected by us, even where there is a general probability of 

 their occurrence at Panama in view of the known range of the species. Of the fishes 

 obtained by the Albatross, we have included such only as were dredged within the 

 fifty-fatliom line. Even when thus restricted, the assemblage is found to contain 

 many forms which are rarely or never taken along shore, and seem to constitute a 

 sublittoral fauna of characteristic shallow-water species. The genera Priimofns, 

 SympJiurus and Diplectrum offer numerous examples of such species. 



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