FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SOUTH AMERICA — EIGENMANN. 



Species. 



PERCOMORPHI— continued. 



Sea bass. 



Croakers. 



Ciclilids. 



Gobies. 



Sculpins. 



Toadfish. 



Flounders. 



Puflfers. 



Total 



*Serranidae .. 



* Sparidie 



* Sciwnidas . . . 

 Cichlida? ... 



* Gobiidse 



* Cottidap, 



* Batracbida^ . 

 *■ Blenniida? . . 



* Gadida' 



HETEROSOMATA. 



*■ Pleuronectid» . 



PLECTOG-XATHI. 



*Tetraodontidas. 



o 

 o 



a 



=« 



H 







1 



2 



6 



21 



126 587 



pJS GO 



General distribution of families. 



5 

 1 



11 

 8C 

 15 



10 



1,147 



Warm seas 



Do. 



Do. 

 Africa, Asia. 

 Warm seas. 

 Nortbern. 

 Warm seas. 



Do. 

 Nortbern. 



All seas. 



Warm seas. 



It will be seen from the i^receding list that, eveu if one or two hundred 

 names are eliminated as probable synonyms, the preponderance of 

 species is still lar^uely in favor of South America. It must also be bt)rne 

 in min<l. that perhaps not more than two-thirds of the fishes of South 

 America are now known. Many will doubtless not be discovered until 

 there are resident ichthyologists. Only sixty species of fresh- water 

 fishes have been recorded from the large system of the Kio Magdalena. 

 If this number be compared with the forty sj)ecies taken from Bean 

 Blossom Creek, in Monroe County, Indiana, a small stream not half a 

 dozen yards wide and which was exi:)lored along but one mile of its 

 course, the amount of work left undone in the fresh waters of South 

 America may be estimated. 



From the American portion of the southern zone,' that is, from the 

 whole region south of the La Plata, but eighteen species of fresh- water 

 fishes are known. Tlie headwaters of the La Plata, Magdalena, Ori- 

 noco, and of the tributaries of the Amazons and most of the rivers be- 

 tween the Amazon and the Sau Francisco are, from an ichthyological 

 standpoint, unknown. 



Only half of the collections of the Thayer expedition has, as yet, been 

 examined, and many new forms will doubtless be added whenever the 

 remaining portion is studied. 



To the number enumerated here should be added the hundred and 

 fifty species of fresh-water fishes recorded from the Mexican and An- 

 tilleau subregions. The number of known species gf neotropical fresh- 

 water fishes is therefore nearly 1,300. 



' For the limita of this zone, see Giiuther, " The Study of Fishes," p. 248. 



