VI PREFACE. 



this paper in the American Monthly Magazine, in which he describes forty-two 

 species, some of which had been figured in the previous essay, but without any 

 description. If we subtract from these, four as doubtful or mere varieties, and 

 eight from the Bahama islands, we have thirty additional species, making with 

 those previously published a total of one hundred and sixty-four fishes from the 

 coast of New-York. The work in which this supplement appeared was a lite- 

 rary magazine of considerable reputation, but its circulation was limited, and it 

 appears to have been little known or consulted either by our own or by foreign 

 naturalists. 



Subsequent to this period, the communications of Dr. Mitchill on ichthyology 

 were distributed through periodicals of every description, not even excepting 

 weekly magazines and daily newspapers. As a matter of interest to the Ame- 

 rican naturalist, we have, in Appendix A, given a list of Mitchill's species, col- 

 lated from all these sources, and accompanied them with the names which they 

 bear in the present work. It is no reflection upon the reputation of this natu- 

 ralist, that these changes have been rendered necessary ; for at that day, ichthy- 

 ology was little studied, and it was far from having attained its present accuracy. 

 He appears to have trusted too much to the vague descriptions of foreign writers, 

 and referred too hastily, descriptions of European to American species. In his 

 case, however, it did not amount to a servile deference to authority; for even in 

 his preliminary essay, he indicates new generic forms, some of which have been 

 adopted in the great standard work of the present day. 



Nearly simultaneous with the first essays of Dr. Mitchill, appeared a new and 

 important laborer in the field of American ichthyology. We allude to Mr. 

 Charles A. Lesueur, an eminent French naturalist, who had accompanied Daudin 

 as a draftsman in his exploring expedition. He lived several years in Philadel- 

 phia, subsequently removed to the settlement of Mr. Owen at New-Harmony, 

 and finally returned to France. His contributions are chiefly to be found in the 

 Journal of the Academy of Natural Science, and the Transactions of the Ame- 

 rican Philosophical Society. He also contributed a few articles to the Annales 



executed though small figures of the most interesting. As he adopted but two of the genera subsequent to Linneus his 

 species are sometimes placed a little at random ; in the genus Esox, for example, he includes many heterogeneous species. 

 Nor has he always unravelled the true nomenclature in the often confused works of European naturalists ; but he has 

 himself furnished in his descriptions the means of rectifying the errors which had escaped him, and his memoir is certainly 

 the best which has appeared in this century on the fishes of the new world." Histoire d'Ic/Uhyologie, p. 202. 



