538 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ralists to ideutify the species that they may meet with. To tjiis end, 

 the portious of the descriptions relating to strictly microscopic parts 

 have freqaently been omitted, wheji more obvious characters, sufficient 

 to distinguish the species, could be found. 



Eefereuces to the plates at the end of this volume have been inserted, 

 and also to the pages in the first part of the report where brief descrip- 

 tions, remarks on the habits, or other information may be found. 



The catalogue of the Crustacea was prepared by Mr. S. I. Smith and 

 Mr. Oscar Harger. The rest of the catalogue is by Professor A. E. Ver- 

 rill, with the exception of the descriptions of the insects, which have 

 been furnished by Dr. A. S. Packard a nd Dr. G. H. Horn ; the Pycno- 

 gonids, which have been determined by Mr. S. I. Smith; and a few 

 of the Bryozoa, which were identified by Professor A. Hyatt, who also 

 furnished most of the figures of the species belonging to that class. 



Hitherto there has been no attempt to enumerate the marine inverte- 

 brates of the entire southern coast of ]S"ew England. Several partial 

 lists have been published, however, and these have been of considera- 

 ble use in the preparation of the following catalogue. 



In the Keport on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts, by Dr. A. A. 

 Gould, 1841, numerous localities for shells on the southern coast of 

 Massachusetts are mentioned. 



A catalogue of the shells of Connecticut, by James H. Linsley, was 

 published in the American Journal of Science, vol. 48, 1845. In " Shells 

 of ]S'ew England," 1851, Dr. William Stimpson gave much accurate in- 

 formation concerning the distribution of our Mollusca. In 18G9 Dr. 

 G. H. Perkins published a very useful catalogue, in the Proceedings of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xiii, p. 109, entitled " Mol- 

 luscan Fauna of New Haven." 



The " Keport on the Mollusca of Long Island, New York, and of its 

 Dependencies," by Sanderson Smith and Temple Prime, in the Annals 

 of the Lyceum of Natural History, vol. ix, p. 377, 1870, also contains 

 much useful information. 



A paper by Dr. Joseph Leidy, entitled " Contributions toward a 

 Knowledge ef the Marine Invertebrate Fauna of the Coasts of Rhode 

 Island and New. Jersey," in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy, 

 vol. iii, 1855, although very incomplete, contains the only published 

 lists of the Annelids and Crustacea of this region. In his "Catalogue 

 of North American Acalephte," 1805, Mr. A. Agassiz has enumerated 

 all the species discovered on this coast up to that time. Other papers 

 will also be referred to in the synonymy. 



