Crustacea of New Jersey. 



BY HENRY W. FOWLER. 



HISTORY. 



The history of the Crustacea of New Jersey, and in fact of 

 North America generally, may be said to begin with the labors 

 of that distinguished veteran naturalist Thomas Say. These are 

 combined in the modest little paper, extending in several parts 

 through the first volume of the Journal of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, published in 1818, and en- 

 titled "An Account of the Crustacea of the United States." 

 This work is the very foundation of North American carcin- 

 ology. While embracing but a few of the more conspicuous 

 forms now known to occur, in the present instance the work is 

 particularly pertinent, inasmuch as many, if not most, of the 

 species were described from the Great Egg Harbor Bay region 

 in the State of New Jersey. The figures accompanying were 

 made with the characteristic daintiness of C. A. Le Sueur, 

 another distinguished colleague of Say's. The region of Egg 

 Harbor Bay was long famous as a point of interest to early local 

 naturalists, and this has been increased by subsequent ones wish- 

 ing to review the work of their predecessors. As most of these 

 gentlemen were interested or connected in ^ome way with the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, most of their 

 material found its way into the museum of this institution. 

 Later they were also induced to visit other regions of the sea- 

 coast, and thus more representative faunal collections were 

 accumulated. As these are more or less complete from certain 



(35) 



