MEMOIRS 



AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



VII. 



A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. 



BY DAVID HUMPHREYS STORER, M. D., A. A. 8. 



Communicated to the Meeting of the American Naturalists, at Neio Haven, 



April 3d, 1845. 



Several years since, at the suggestion of my friend, Dr. Harris, 

 of Cambridge, I was induced to commence the preparation of a Sy- 

 nopsis of the Fishes of the United States. After having been dili- 

 gently engaged in this undertaking for a number of months, learning 

 that Dr. Dekay intended to describe, in his contemplated Zoologi- 

 cal Report of the State of New York, under the head of " Extra- 

 limital," all the fishes of the United States not found in that State, 

 I at once determined to proceed no further until the appearance of 

 that work. Upon the publication of his Report, in the early part 

 of 1842, I found so much had been done by Dr. Dekay towards 

 the execution of the task I had contemplated, that I dismissed from 

 my mind all thoughts of prosecuting the subject. This Associa- 

 tion, at its annual meeting at Albany, in 1843, did me the honor 

 to request me to prepare a paper "On the Comparative Ichthy- 

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