THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 43 
SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD. 
1855. Report on the Fishes observed on the coasts of New Jersey and Long 
Island during the summer of 1854. <Ninth Annual Report, Smiths. Inst., 
1854, PP. 317-352+337. 
This is properly the first work on the fish-fauna of New 
Jersey, and will long stand among the first of its kind. As 
stated by Dr. Bean this ‘was the first systematic account of 
marine fishes made by Baird and also the only one of its kind 
which has emanated directly from his pen. It was here that he 
originated the methods of observation of marine fishes which were 
long afterwards applied in his greater researches on behalf of 
the United States Government into the causes of the decrease of 
food-fishes and their propagation in the waters of the United 
States. The paper is the result of a six weeks’ stay on the 
New Jersey coast, principally at Beesley’s Point, and Long 
Island, New York. An account of the region is given, the 
vernaculars employed by the fishermen, and notes on the habits, 
occurrence, life, colors, etc., of each species. Baird was so for- 
tunate at that time as to gain the good will of Messrs. Samuel 
and Charles Ashmead, who resided at Beesley’s Point, and whose 
large collections from that place have found their way into the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where they have 
been studied by the present writer and embraced, such as are 
still extant, in the present report. Some of Baird’s examples 
were also sent to that institution from the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion many years ago and have also been examined in this con- 
nection. 
Baird’s paper was reprinted as a pamphlet with an index under 
the following title: 
“Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, on 
the Fishes of the New Jersey coast, as observed in the Summer 
of 1854, by Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary, S. I. From 
the Ninth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for. 
1854, Washington, Beverly Tucker, Senate Printer, June, 1855. 
[8 vo, 40 pp.] 
