VI PREFACE. 



The present work is, in a sense, a revision of the " Synopsis of the 

 Fishes of North America," published in 1883 by Jordan & Gilbert, as 

 Bulletin XVI of the United States National Museum. While the gen- 

 eral cliaracter of the work is the same as in the Synopsis, the text in the 

 present work has been entirely rewritten, and the geographical range 

 greatly extended by the addition of the faunas of Mexico, Central Amer- 

 ica, and the West Indies. The number of species included has been thus 

 more than doubled. An effort has been made to show in -the sequence 

 of forms, something of our knowledge of the line of evolution of the 

 different groups of fishes. 



Our recognition of indebtedness should include in greater or less 

 degree most contemporary workers in systematic ichthyology, for it is 

 not easy to separate the aid given to our individual studies from that 

 given as direct assistance in the preparation of the present work. 



Dr. Charles Henry Gilbert has turned over to the present junior 

 author his share in Jordan & Gilbert's "Synopsis," and has also freely 

 given lielp and advice, unpublished observations, descriptions of new 

 forms, and other aids which increase the usefulness of the work. Most 

 of the descriptions here published have been written in his laboratory 

 or verified in the museum in his charge. 



In ways similarly important, we are under the deepest obligations to 

 Dr. Theodore Gill, who has looked over all our proof sheets, and who 

 has given numberless valuable suggestions arising from his extensive 

 knowledge of comparative anatomy and of the literature of zoology. 

 Every part of the work has been made more valuable by the friendly 

 interest of this master of taxonomy. 



Still other aids of importance have come from Dr. G. Brown Goode, 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of the United 

 States National Museum. The work of rewriting the Synopsis of 1883 

 was undertaken at his suggestion. Every help toward its completion 

 has been freely extended, the most important being the use of the 

 advance proof-sheets of the "Oceanic Ichthyology" of Goode & Bean. 



To Timothy Hopkins, esq., of Menlo Park, Cal., a generous patron of 

 biological research, we are indebted for the kind interest which made it 

 possible for the junior author to associate himself with the present work. 



Dr. George A. Boulenger, of the British Museum of Natural History, 

 has examined many type specimens for us, and has most kindly furnished 

 advance proof-sheets of the first volume of his Catalogue of Teleostean 

 Fishes. Large use of these proof sheets has been made in our accounts 

 of the PercidcB and Serranidm. 



