326 Zoological Society :— 
attached at its point: this condition is to be seen not only on the 
points of the primaries, but also on the ends of the feathers of the 
entire plumage. Thus the bird for some time carries his early dress 
on the outside of his second plumage. The rapid growth of the 
plumage can be best understood from the fact that on the 27th of 
September it was found necessary to catch the young bird in order 
to cut the primaries of one of its wings (which I exhibit), to prevent 
its flying away. The bird by this time almost equalled its parents 
in size, and is now assuming the colour of the adult. 
On A CouutcTion oF FisHes sENT BY Capt. Dow FROM THE 
Paciric Coast or CentrAt AmeEricA. By Dr. ALBERT 
GUNTHER. 
A small collection of Fishes transmitted to the Society by its 
Corresponding Member, Capt. Dow, from the Pacific coast of Cen- 
tral America, has proved to be one of great interest, not only because 
it contains an unusually large proportion of new species, but also 
because it illustrates a very strange fact with regard to the geogra- 
phical distribution of the class of Fishes, Several instances of one 
and the same species occurring on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides 
of Central America have been known to me for several years. Ne- 
vertheless when Mr. Fraser sent home his last collection, made on 
the Pacific side of the isthmus, and when I found several West 
Indian species of fishes in it, I was much surprised, and rather in- 
clined to assume that accidentally some confusion had taken place. 
Every doubt, however, is removed by this last arrival, of Capt. Dow’s 
collection, containing five species out of fourteen which are identical 
with Atlantic forms, namely :—Batrachus surinamensis, Salarias 
atlanticus, Clinus Delalandii, Mugil proboscideus, and Fistularia 
tabaccaria. It is, however, worthy of remark, that nearly all the 
species belong to genera living near the coast, and freely entering 
fresh waters. 
The ichthyic fauna of the western coasts of America, between 
8° north and 8° south of the Tropic of Cancer, offers a remarkable 
assemblage of types which belong to very different geographical re- 
gions,—representatives of the faunas of North-west America, of the 
Pacific coasts of South America, of Japan, and of the Sandwich Is- 
lands, and of the Atlantic being mixed with a great number of forms 
peculiar to the area mentioned. : 
We give, first, a list of the species contained in Capt. Dow’s col- 
lection :— 
1. Apogon Dovii, n. sp. 
Gobius paradoxus, 0. sp. 
seminudus, Nn. sp. 
. Euctenogobius sagittula, n. sp. 
. Batrachus surinamensis, Bl. Schn. 
. Blennius brevipinnis, n. sp. 
. Salarias atlanticus, C. & V. var. (see Gthr. Acanth. iii. p. 243). 
. Clinus Delalandii, C.& V. 
Du Aoe pwr 
