PREFACE. 1x 
thyologist. ‘They are taken for the most part from living specimens, and care- 
fully colored on the spot. For those which are copied, due credit is given in the 
text, and the twelve last plates are almost entirely of this character. Where 
we have been unable to draw from a living specimen, and have been compelled 
to make use of a cabinet specimen, we have given merely an outline. — 
Exclusive of the fossil fishes, we enumerate in the work four hundred and forty 
species, comprised under one hundred and fifty-six genera and thirty-two fami- 
lies. Of these, two hundred and ninety-four species belonging to this State, or 
the adjacent waters, are accompanied by detailed descriptions. In preparing 
the following pages, we have endeavored to compress our descriptions within 
the shortest possible compass consistent with clearness. Had this been the only 
department entrusted to us, we should have dwelt more on the anatomical details, 
and perhaps have been more diffuse on the habits and peculiarities of species. 
Too little, however, is positively known of their habits, and that little is mixed 
up with too much of the marvellous, to render it desirable or profitable to intro- 
duce them here. When it is, moreover, recollected that we are to traverse 
through the whole animal kingdom, we would fain indulge the hope that this 
imperfect attempt to enlarge our acquaintance with a single class may be received 
with a favor proportionate to the difficulties and extent of the task. 
J. E. DE KAY. 
Tue Locusts, QurEns County. 
July 1, 1842. 
