CHECK LIST OF FISHES 5 



Only those who have had experience in cataloguing, in a similar 

 way, the species in some large group of animals or plants can appre- 

 ciate the difficulties involved. In the first place, in order to make the 

 list complete by the inclusion of all valid names and all real synonyms 

 it was necessary to make a careful search of all ichthyological litera- 

 ture. It is too much to expect that we have been entirely successful 

 in this search; some names probably have been overlooked. The 

 verification of the thousands of references as to the publication, 

 volume, page, date, spelhng, and type locality, was even more 

 exacting and arduous; but most difficult of all were the multitude 

 of taxonomic problems involved. In many cases existing knowledge 

 is not adequate for final settlement. It is not improbable that some 

 of our decisions as to the taxonomic relationships of certain species 

 and the validity of othere may not meet the approval of all of our 

 coworkers, but that is inevitable where knowledge is incomplete. 



The present senior author, as a lifelong teacher of biology, may be 

 pardoned a pei"sonal reference. Himself a student of Agassiz and 

 GUI of the earlier period, he has had the honor of being also a friend, 

 to some extent a prot^g^, of Baird, Giinther, Vaillant, Liitken, 

 Hilgendorf, and Cope. In addition, he has numbered among his 

 own students many of those active in systematic ichthyology during 

 the late modern period. Among these are James Francis Abbott, 

 Willis Stanley Blatchley, Charles Harvey Bollman, Alembert Win- 

 throp Brayton, Charles Victor Burke, Howard Walton Clark*, 

 Herbert Edson Copeland, Frank Cramer, George Bliss Culver, 

 Bradley Moore Davis, Mary Cynthia Dickerson, Charles Lincoln 

 Edwards, Carl H. Eigenmann, Rosa Smith P^igenmann, Barton 

 Warren Evermann, Ikut Fesler, Morton William Fordice, Henry 

 Weed Fowler, Charles Henry Gilbert, James Zacchcus Gilbert, 

 David Kop Goss, Ulysses Simpson Grant IV, Artluir W^hite Greeley, 

 Joseph Grinnell, Harold Hannibal, ICdmund Heller, Albert William 

 Christian Theodore Herre, Jennie Horning, Carl Leavitt Hubbs, 

 Elizabeth G. Hughes, Oliver Peebles Jenkins, Eric Knight Jordan, 

 Philip Henry Kii-sch, Richard Crittenden McGregor, Ernest Alex- 

 ander McGregor, Charles Leslie McKay, Seth Eugene Meek, Charles 

 William Metz, Heraclio R. Montalban, George Sprague Myers, 

 Edward William Nelson, Robert Newland, Masamitsu Oshima, 

 Keinosuke Otaki, Charles J. Pierson, Cora D. Reeves, Robert Earl 

 Richardson, Cloudsley Rutter*, Norman Bishop Scofield, Alvin 

 Scale, Michitaro wSindo, Tage Skogsberg, Robert Evans Snodgrass, 

 John Otterbein Snyder, Edwin Chapin Starks, Joseph Swain, Shigeho 

 Tanaka, Lionel William Wiedey, Wilbur Wilson Thoburn, Joseph 

 C. Thompson, William Francis Thompson, Deogracias Villiamin 

 Villadolid, Yojiro Wakiyji, Frank Walter Weymouth, Thomas 

 Marion Williams, and Albert Jeffei"son W^oolman.* 



Those marked with an asterisk have also been students of Doctor 

 Evermann, as have also the following: P'rederick Morton Chamber- 

 lain, Ulysses Orange Cox, Samuel Frederick Hildebrand, Chancey 

 Juday, William Converse Kendall, Clarence Hamilton Kennedy, 

 William J. Moenkhaus, John Treadwell Nichols, Lewis RadclifFe, 

 Josiah Thomas Scovell, and Alfred Cleveland Weed. 



Many of these have made important contributions to our knowl- 

 edge of fishes. 



The preparation of this Check List has extended over a period of 

 more than 20 yeare. It was begun in 1906 by the senior authors. 



