123 



All the original specimens from which Mr. Girard made his descrip- 

 tions, have been carefully compared with the originals of Professor 

 Agassiz's descriptions. As there were no original specimens of Mr. 

 Gibbons's in the Museum of the California Academy, I was only able 

 to identify his species from his descriptions. Fortunately they are so 

 characteristic, that with fresh specimens before one's eyes it is hardly 

 possible to mistake them. All the specimens collected for several 

 years by Mr. T. G. Gary, of San Francisco, and those I collected 

 myself during my stay in California, have been examined. These 

 specimens were taken at different seasons and in all the possible 

 stages of growth, and amount to a very large number, sometimes 400 

 for a single species, so that I have had excellent series of all the 

 species, with one exception, Embiotoca argyrosoma of Girard, of which 

 the specimen in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution is the 

 only representative. 



A great number of specimens of these Viviparous fishes having 

 been distributed, I give below their synonymy, and have also added 

 the MSS. names given to them by Prof Agassiz, as specimens, with 

 these names, have probably found their way into other museums. 

 The fifteen species which are given below have appeared at different 

 times, under no less than fifty different names. Troschel, who trans- 

 lated the papers of Agassiz, Gibbons, and Girard for Wiegman's 

 Archiv, has given a summary (Wieg. Archiv, 1855, i. p. 353) of the 

 whole family. He simply enumerates all the genera and species de- 

 scribed by Agassiz, Gibbons, and Girard, thinking he could perceive 

 the specific difference of all the species enumerated from the descrip- 

 tions alone ; but the fourteen genera and thirty species there enume- 

 rated are reducible to nine genera and fifteen species, when the speci- 

 mens are carefully compared. I have, therefore, carefully revised the 

 synonymy of the whole family, with the original specimens before 

 me, and present here the result of this examination, retaining, of 

 course, for each species, the oldest name according to date of publi- 

 cation. 



As I intend in a future communication to take up the family again, 

 with the intention of revising the genera, I have retained the generic 

 names of DamalicMhys Girard, and of Phanerodon Girard, although 

 the first genus was established upon an imperfect specimen, and be- 

 longs probably to the genus Embiotoca^ near E. lateralis. The genus 

 Phanerodon of Girard, is also closely allied to Mlcrometrus of Gib- 

 bons, and a better knowledge of the anatomy of these fishes will 

 settle these points. 



What makes it very difficult to describe a species thoroughly from 

 a few specimens in this family is the fact, that in some of the species, 

 as in E. Jacksoni and E. lateralis, some of the characters of the 

 young, such as the transverse banding, the shape of the anal fin, and 



