44 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



largest and most important contribution. His work was not only 

 extensive, but accurate, and has well endured the test of time. The 

 same, however, cannot be said of the other important contributor to 

 this work. Alexander Agassiz (1878-79, 1882), has written three 

 papers describing the young stages of certain teleosts, and A. Agassiz 

 and C. 0. Whitman (1885) contributed another extensive paper on 

 the same subject. In these papers certain early stages of about twenty 

 species were figured and described, together with several unidentified 

 eggs and larvse. Unfortunately, however, the work of various later 

 investigators has shown in several cases their identification of the eggs 

 and larvae was either quite erroneous or at least questionable. The 

 following criticisms have come to the notice of the writer. 



Osmerus mordax. 



A. Agassiz (1882) hat " Entwicklungsformen von Osm. mordax 

 beschrieben, die aus planktonischen Eiern stammen sollen; die 

 jiingsten aus solchen Eiern gezlichteten Larven sind aber bestimmt 

 nicht Osmerus, sondern anscheinend Clupea spec; liber die als 0. 

 mordax bezeichneten alteren Stadien, welche Agassiz abbildet, 

 lasst sich nichts Sicheres sagen." (Ehrenbaum, Nordisches Plank- 

 ton, X, 1909, 343). 



Roccus lineatus. 



Ryder discusses at some length the young which Agassiz (1882) 

 identified as belonging to this species. "These differences lead me 

 to think that the larval fishes figured by Mr. Agassiz as pertaining to 

 the species here under consideration must belong to another form, 

 as none of his figures can be reconciled with those taken from larvse 

 of the striped bass, the parentage of which is undoubted. In this 

 opinion I am most conclusively confirmed by a drawing which has 

 fallen into my hands by the late Professor Henry J. Rice." (Ryder, 

 Report U. S. Fish Commission, XIII, 1885, 503.) Ehrenbaum says, 

 "Man darf daher mit Ryder annehmen, dass die zahlreichen Abbil- 



