490 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



tain many forms which are only transient visitors to our State. The 

 diagnoses have been prepared for persons of general education who 

 may be interested in identifying species, rather than for the scientific 

 specialist. So far as possible, technical terms and anatomical charac- 

 teristics have been avoided, although it was impossible to omit them 

 entirely. Such terms are defined in any standard dictionary, and the 

 symbols and abbreviations used are explained at the close of this 

 Catalogue. 



Professor Jordan's excellent " Manual of the Vertebrates of the 

 Northern United States"* has been used in the preparation of the 

 lists of Mammals, Reptiles and Amphibia. In numerous instances, 

 the language of the Manual has been copied verbatim or nearly so, 

 but much valuable matter has been necessarily omitted. The reader 

 who desires fuller information is referred to the above work. For 

 the birds, the recently-issued " Manual of the Birds of North 

 America," by Robert Ridgway, has been used more freely, but in 

 rare instances have any sentences been copied verbatim, and only a 

 small portion of each of Mr. Ridgway's full descriptions has been 

 used. But Prof. Jordan's descriptions have been used wherever they 

 appeared satisfactory to our purpose. 



For the fishes, free use has been made of Jordan and Gilbert^s 

 "Synopsis of the Fishes of North America" (Smithsonian Collec- 

 tions, Vol. XXIV., 1883). 



The general arrangement of the generic, specific and common names 

 of the groups of animals which was adopted by Dr. Abbott has been 

 followed, except that in giving the scientific name of the species the 

 generic name is repeated by initial only. The names of authors,^ 

 usually abbreviated — see list of abbreviations at close of Catalogue — 

 are added in Roman type after the scientific name of the genus and 

 the species or variety. Then come synonyms, added in brackets, and 

 when following a generic term are generic names, and usually are of 

 specific value if occurring after the specific designation ; but it often 

 happens that a particular species has been referred to several different 

 genera, and has had various specific names given by different authors 

 that are now to be set aside ; and, furthermore, a succeeding species 

 belonging to the same genus as now adopted has been referred to 

 another set of genera different from those applied to the former 

 species. In all such cases the specific name is followed by the series 



* Foiirtli edition. The fit'tli edition came to hand too late tor use in this work. 



