ON THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA. 13 



Barton W. Evermann, 1900; American Fishes (Goode), the Cata- 

 logue of the New York Aquarium, Webster's Dictionary, and the 

 various angling works, I have already mentioned, but, of course, ac- 

 cept Jordan & Evermann as the only, and final, authority. 



I am especially careful to give all the Spanish and French names 

 in Jordan & Evermann, because those names are the ones by which 

 the fishes were first known by civilized people in this country, and 

 many of them are singularly appropriate, as they indicate character- 

 istics and especial features in the fishes, which is not the case, to the 

 same extent, in the English names. 



Instead of making my list run in alphabetical order, I feel obliged 

 to conform to the method adopted by Jordan & Evermann and 

 other ichthyologists in the United States. Contrary to the methods 

 generally adopted in Europe of giving precedence to the higher forms 

 of fish life, the Americans have given it to the lowest or simplest 

 orders, commencing with the Lancelets, Lampreys, then Sharks, 

 Skates, Rays, etc., and then coming on up to the more highly organ- 

 ized orders and species. My index, however, will enable the reader 

 to find the fish he is looking for. This procedure compels me to 

 commence my list with nineteen worthless fishes, which do not make 

 a very pleasant introduction to my readers, who, however, if they 

 fish long on the coast, especially among the Keys, will catch them 

 all, thus being compelled to take the bitter with the sweet. As the 

 technical descriptions are necessarily long, I give only such as I con- 

 sider of importance, but give one or more in every family, and give 

 illustration of one or more in nearly every family mentioned which 

 is illustrated in Jordan & Evermann' s Bulletin 47. 



There seems to have been no generally accepted rule, or custom, 

 among the angling writers as to whether the common names of fishes 

 should begin with a capital letter or not. The earlier writers in this 

 country seem to have capitalized quite generally in their texts, while 

 some of those of later dates have abandoned the practice, and others 

 have continued it. Among those who have continued, I will men- 

 tion : Frank Forrester, 1859 ; Thaddeus Norris, 1864 ; J. C. Wil- 

 cocks in the "Sea Fisherman" (English), 1884; Rand, McNally & 

 Co., 1892 ; and G. Brown Goode, who was "Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in charge of the United States National Museum, 

 and Commissioner to the International Fisheries exhibitions in Berlin 

 and London." Mr. Goode seems to have made it an especial point to 



