VI 
PREFACE. 
our account of the CentrarcMdce. Prof. S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois 
Laboratory of Iilatural History, has furnished numerous notes on the 
Fercklfc and Cyprinidce of Illinois. Prof. Felipe Poey, of Havana, has 
given valuable information in regard to the fishes of the Florida Keys. 
Professor O. P. Hay, of Butler University, has furnished us manuscript 
descriptions of species new to science. Miss Rosa Smith, IMr. Jose]>h 
Swain, and especially Mrs. Susan B. Jordan, have given important per- 
sonal assistance in the verification of the descriptions in our manu- 
scripts. 
Finally, we may refer to the early encouragement received from i)r. 
Elliott Cones, whose advice and example led us to undertake to do for 
American Ichthyology, so far as lay in our iiower, what Cones’ “Key 
to Korth American Birds” has done for xAmerican Ornithology. 
A Bibliography of North American Ichthyology is soon to be pub- 
lished by Professor Goode. We have therefore not attempted to give 
a list of the works consulted by us. We have endeavored to examine 
everything pertaining to American Ichthyology. 
Under the head of each species, enough synonymy has been given to 
connect this work with other descriptive works, and no more. Refer- 
ence is made to the original description of each species, to the descri])- 
tions in Dr. Gunther’s “Catalogue of the Fishes of. the British Museum,” 
and to other works in which special information is given or in which 
some name different from the one adopted by us is employed. 
This work was first prepared for the press in 1879, during which year 
a portion of it was printed. Since then the printing has been several 
times interrupted, chiefly by the absence of the authors while engaged 
in field-work. It was finished in September, 1882. The manuscriiffs 
uniirinted have been from time to time revised, and each part has been 
brought up to the date of finally leaving our hands. The fact that the 
printing has extended over more than three years, — three of the most 
active years in the history of American Ichthyology, — will account for 
some discrepancies between the first and last parts of the work. In the 
Addenda, we have included the species wdiich have been described 
since the printing of the accounts of the families to which they re- 
spectively belong. 
DAVID S. JORDAN. 
CHARLES H. GILBERT. 
Indiana University, 
Bloomington^ Ind., September 14 , 1882 . 
