EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 187 



Doctor Smith, in his main article, enumerated 23^' such species; in 

 1899 added 16^, and in 1900, 4 more''. No additional ones have been 

 discovered since'' — a fact bj' no means surprising. The additional 

 species, with one exception, were known estrays from tropical waters; 

 the exception was supposed to have been previously unknown and was 

 described as Chsetodon hrlcei. 



If we now first subtract from Goode and Bean's catalogue of the 

 fishes of Essex Count}'- 24 species which are deep-sea forms not yet 

 found in Massachusetts Bay, we shall have left 36 species which have 

 not been found about Woods Hole. These, added to the 240 actually 

 found there, and 5 more from fresh water will give us a total of 281, 

 the number of species now known to have been found at some time or 

 other along the coast of Massachusetts or in her interior waters. 



XL 



A specially notable feature in the late enumerations and additions 

 to the fauna of southern Massachusetts is the great number of young 

 tropical fishes and the comparative or total absence of adults. Sixteen 

 species were added in 1899 to the piscine visitors to Woods Hole and 

 4 in 1900, and of these no less than 18 were the young of typical 

 tropical forms. In round numbers, al)out 3 dozen species of tropical 

 fishes have been found along the coast, represented onl}' or almost only 

 b}'^ the young — often the very j'oung. In olden times when persons 

 believed, or thought they believed, that all fishes laid eggs at the bot- 

 tom, it would naturally have been inferred that such young must have 

 been hatched close by, and that the parent fishes had spawned in the 

 northern seas. Such an inference, with our present knowledge, is 

 quite unjustifiable. We now know that a very large proportion of 

 fishes develop pelagic or floating eggs and not demersal ones. If such 

 fishes, then, would discharge their ripened ovarian burdens near the 

 surface of the open sea where currents would carry them northward, 



a No less than 24 species were added to the piscifauna of southern Massachusetts, the majority of 

 which were represented by young wanderers from the south, indicated by italics. 



Tarpon atlanticus, Opisthonema oglinum, Trachinocephahis myops, Lucania parva, Athlennes hians, 

 Gasterosteus gladiunculus, Polydactyhis ocioncmus, Oligoplites saurus, Caranx hartholovisei, Trachinotm 

 goodci, JVeoma-ji/s gri^eus, Neomxnis jocu, JSconi^enis apodiis, Neomsenis aya, Keomxnis analis, Larimus 

 fascia tus, Sciaenops ocellatus, Pogonias cromis, Chxtodon ocdlatus, Chxtodon bricei [=Chxlodon capi- 

 stratiis, young?], Chxtudon striatus, Caiithidcrmis aspeirimus, Sphcroidcs spengleri, Sebastes marinus. 



bThe following species were added in 1S99, all represented by young individuals except the 

 Murcena, Apogon, and Lactophrys tricornis: 



Muraena retifera (a specimen "6 feet 2 inches in length," was taken in a lobster pot; the species was 

 previously known only from the type taken in deep water oft the South Carolina coast) ; Holoccntrus, 

 Apogon maculatus, Epinephelus morio, Epinephelus adscensionis, Garrupa nigrita, Mycteroperca 

 bonaci, Mycteroperca interstitialis, Eupomacentrus leucostictus, Scorpjena plumieri, Scorpanagrandi- 

 cornis, Teuthis coeruleus, Teuthis liepatus, Teuthis baliianus, Lactophrys triqueter, Lactophrys tri- 

 cornLs (an adult 15j inches long washed ashore). 



cThe specimens obtained were young, but probably not of the first year. The size in inches and 

 date of capture are specified in each case: Exoccetus rondeletii, October 13, 7.25 inches; Ocyurus 

 chrysurus, October 4, 5.5 inches; Scarus croiceusis, October 20, 3 inches; Sparisoma flavescens, Novem- 

 ber 13, 6 inches. 



rf An adult specimen of Brama raii was obtained in a trap net of the Bureau of Fisheries at Nomans 

 Laud in September, 1904. 



