122 



Mr. Theodore Lyman presented the " Noimewu Diction- 

 7iaire cVIIistoire Naturelle^^ 36 vols. 8vo., Paris, 181G-1819, 

 — a work of reference of very great value, especially to the 

 ornithologist, as most of Vieillot's birds are described in it. 



Mr. Putnam presented, in the name of Mr. Theodore Gill, 

 a catalogue of the fishes found from Greenland to Georgia. 

 He believed Mr. Gill to be mistaken in carrying the northern 

 fauna so far south as Georgia, as many of the West Indian 

 fishes come to the coast of South Carolina. 



Mr. David M. Balch, of Boston, was chosen a resident 

 member. 



March 20, 1861. 

 The President in the Chair. 



Mr. A. Agassiz communicated the following paper : — 



Notes on the described species of Holconoti, found on 

 THE Western coast of North America. By A. Agassiz. 



While in California I had the opportunity of seeing in a fresh con- 

 dition a large number of these fishes. I made colored drawings of all 

 the species, with one exception, and was enabled to identify all the 

 species of Gibbons, which had for the most part been described in 

 the Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 San Francisco, at the time when the proceedings appeared only 

 in some of the daily papers. I have been very careful in hunting 

 up all the descriptions thus published, so as to settle definitely the 

 claims of priority of Agassiz, Gibbons, and Girard. Although Mr. 

 Gibbons read papers before the California Academy, describing 

 several species some time before Prof. Agassiz published his first 

 notice of Viviparous Fishes in the American Journal of November 

 1853, Mr. Gibbons did not publish a single description before the 

 18th of May, 1854, when four species were described in the San 

 Francisco Daily Placer Times and Transcript. This was some time 

 after the publication of the " Additional Notes on Holconoti," by 

 Prof. Agassiz, in the May number of the American Journal for 1854. 

 After this date Mr. Gihbons read several additional papers before the 

 California Academy, and descriptions were published in the San 

 Francisco Daily Placer Times and Transcript of May 30 and June 31. 

 So that all the species described by Gibbons were published a few 

 weeks before the descri})tions whicli Mr. Girard published in the 

 Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy. 



