CHECK-LIST OF THE FISHES OF FLORIDA. 



By B. W. Evermann and W. C. Kendall. 



INTRODUCTION. 



While studying the large collections of fishes recently made by the 

 United States Fish Commission at Key West, Biscayne Bay, St. Johns 

 Eiver, Tarpon Springs, Tampa, and elsewhere in Florida, the present 

 writers found it necessary to go over all the literature pertaining to the 

 fishes of that State, particularly papers of a faunal character or which 

 bear in any way upon the geographic distribution of Florida fishes. 



The examination of this literature, the identification of the different 

 species mentioned by the various writers, the reduction of these species 

 to a common denominator, and the determination of the name which 

 each must bear in the light of present ichthyological knowledge, have 

 constituted a work fraught with many difficulties. In order that the 

 results of so much labor may be preserved and be readily available for 

 use in further studies of the fish fauna of Florida, it has seemed wise 

 to publish this check-list of the fishes of Florida, in which the known 

 geographic distribution in the State of each species is fully indicated. 



The list includes all species of fishes known by us to occur in the fresh 

 and brackish waters of Florida, and all salt-water species known from 

 Florida waters within the depth limit of 1,000 fathoms. Under each spe- 

 cies are given all the Florida localities from which it has been reported, 

 and in the parenthesis following each locality are the name of the 

 author reporting the species and the year when it was so reported. 



In the bibliography which follows will be found the titles of all papers 

 of a faunal nature pertaining to the fishes of Florida which we have 

 been able to find. Some titles may have been overlooked, but it is 

 believed that all the important ones have been included. The titles are 

 arranged in chronological order and any reference in the text of the 

 list can be easily located by means of the bibliography. When two or 

 more papers on Florida fishes were published in the same year by an 

 author the letter a is added to the second one cited, h to the third, and 

 so on, to agree with the references in the text. 



Several investigations bearing upon the geographic distribution of 

 fishes in Floridian waters have been made, the results of which have 

 not been published. The most important of these are the following: 



In 1889 the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Fish HaicJc, while engaged 

 in experimental hatching of mullet and sheepshead at Punta Gorda 

 and Punta Eassa, made a small collection of fishes in Charlotte Harbor. 

 These have been studied by us aud are referred to in this paper as 

 having been collected by the Fish Hatvli, as ^^Fish EmcJc coll., 1889." 



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