366 ANNUAL BEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



made a very thorough study of this subject. Many of the forms that 

 are taken in China seas are of very wide distribution, others very 

 local. The Clupeidae, or herring family, is represented by a number 

 of species, but it is not a very important group. The same may be 

 said of the Gadidse, or cod family, and the Pleuronectidse, or flat 

 iishes, families that are very important in the European and North 

 American fisheries. The Perciforms, fishes that conform to the gen- 

 eral characteristics of the perches, such as basses, maigres, rockfishes, 

 sea breams, and the like, are of the utmost importance. One fish 

 that should be specially mentioned is the hairtail (Trichiurus) , the 

 long, silvery, ribbonlike fish that one sees so frequently for sale, 

 either in the dried form or fresh, in China. It is taken some little 

 distance out at sea, apparently in large numbers, and is a great 

 favorite with the Chinese. As one works northward along the east 

 coast of Corea toward that of the Primorsk and the Okhotsk Sea 

 the marine fish fauna undergoes a profound change in its composi- 

 tion. Flat fishes, herrings, gadoids, or cods and their relations, be- 

 come the important elements, while there is a remarkable increase 

 of members of such groups as the liparids^ blennies, cottoids, and 

 agonids. At the same time we find the Pacific salmonoids appear- 

 ing, and running up the rivers to spawn, in exactly the same way as 

 they do on the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, and the north 

 Pacific Coast States of America. In other words, the marine fishes 

 of the Manchurian region show strong affinities with those of North 

 America. 



The fresh-water fishes of China are in many ways unique, or, per- 

 haps it would be better to say, China possesses a somewhat unique 

 fresh-water fish fauna. It is overwhelmingly cyprinid in its com- 

 position, the carp family having reached a high stage of develop- 

 ment in these parts. It is impossible to give a list of the peculiar 

 cyprinids that occur in Chinese waters, but a few forms may be 

 mentioned. The gigantic Elopichthys bambusa, which resembles in 

 its external characteristics a salmon, and reaches a length of 4 or 5 

 feet, and a weight of over 100 catties, is one. The peculiar Hypoph- 

 thalmichthys molitrix, whose generic name means the fish with the 

 eyes on the under side, is another. This species also attains a great 

 size. China also possesses some very remarkable gudgeons, one of 

 which is very long and slender in the body, and has a long snout, 

 which gives it the appearance of a sturgeon. Breams, chubs, carps, 

 culters, bitterlings, minnows, and loaches are all represented, many 

 of them by genera purely Chinese. It is maintained that China was 

 one of the centers of development and dispersal of the ciprinids, or 

 carp family, and from a survey of its fish one might well believe this 

 to be true. 



