Synopsis of the Fresh Water Fishes of Trinidad. 363 



XXXVIH. — Synopsis of the Fresh Water Fishes of the 

 Western Portion of the Island of Trinidad, W. I. 



Br Theodore Gill. 



Head September 18, 1858. 



I. 



By the kindness and liberality of our friend Mr. D. Jackson 

 Steward of the city of New York, we were enabled this year to 

 undertake a tour through several of the West Indian islands for 

 the purpose of collecting and studying the species of molluscous 

 animals and shells, and incidentally the members of the various 

 other classes known to the zoologist. In pursuance of this 

 object, we visited the island of Trinidad, where we resided for 

 a period of several months, which extended through portions of 

 the spring and summer. 



Knowing the intimate relation which existed between the 

 ornithological fauna of the island, and that of the neighboring 

 continent, from the mention of the habitats of the species de- 

 scribed or enumerated in the memoirs of Mr. Philip Lutley 

 Sclater and other naturalists, and from the collections which we 

 had the privilege of examining ; noticing also the similarity of 

 the mammals, insects, and the terrestrial mollusks to species and 

 groups inhabiting the northern parts of South America, we 

 were induced to inquire if this similarity extended to the other 

 groups, and for this purpose to devote especial attention to those 

 two classes of the vertebrated animals, — the reptiles and the 

 fishes, — which had been most neglected. As most of the species 

 of the ichthyic class which inhabit the Gulf of Paria, and the 

 seas which bound the island on the north and east, were found 

 to be the same as those distributed through the entire Carib- 

 bean sea, very few were preserved, attention being chiefly con- 

 fined to those living in the fresh waters of the island. 



