NOTES ON FRESH-WATER FISHES FROM MEXICO AND 

 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



By SETH EUGENE MEEK. 



During the past year and a half the Museum has received from 

 Mexico and Central America several collections of fresh-water fishes. 

 The Central American countries represented are Guatemala, Beliz, 

 Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In the following paper those from each 

 country are listed separately. The largest collections are from Guate- 

 mala and are listed first. These collections were made during Januar)- 

 and February, 1906, as follows: Collections made by the writer are 

 from the Motagua River at El Rancho, Lake Amatitlan, Mazatenango 

 San Jose del Idolo and Caballo Blanco; a collection made by Dr. N 

 Dearborn, Rio Motagua. Los Amates; a collection made by C. M. Bar- 

 ber in Lake Atitlan. 



The Rio Motagua at El Rancho and at Los Amates flows with a 

 swift current over sandy and rocky bottom. It is a large stream, but 

 does not appear to be well supplied with fishes, especially in its upper 

 course. Its fishes were studied some two years ago by Newton Miller*, 

 who has given an excellent account of the ichthyology of this river, 

 which is the largest one in the Republic. 



The water-courses visited by the writer at Mazatenango and San 

 Jos^ del Idolo, are swift mountain streams, flowing for the most pari 

 over rocky bottoms. The Rio Tilapa at Caballo Blanco drains the 

 western slope of the volcano Santa Maria, and since the eruption of 

 1902 it has been almost without fishes. At Caballo Blanco this river 

 is very wide, but averages in February less than a foot in depth. It is 

 overloaded with sediment from the ashes thrown out during that erup- 

 tion. A collection of fishes was made in the Rio Isquia a short dis- 

 tance south of Caballo Blanco. In these the current was sluggish, and 

 fishes were more abundant in them than in the waters of the higher 

 lands. The physical features and the biolog}' of the lakes Amatitlan 

 and Atitlan will be described in a paper now in preparation. The 

 study of these lakes was made under the patronage of the Guatemalan 

 government. 



I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Combs, U. S. Min 

 ister to Mexico, his secretary, Mr. Brown, and to Mr. Winslow, U. S. 



♦Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1907, pp. 95-124. 



