REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 187 
Doctor Smith, in his main article, enumerated 25% such species; in 
1899 added 16°, and in 1900, 4 more’. No additional ones have been 
discovered since’—a fact by no means surprising. The additional 
species, with one exception, were known estrays from tropical waters; 
the exception was supposed to have been previously unknown and was 
described as Chetodon brice?. 
If we now first subtract from Goode and Bean’s catalogue of the 
fishes of Hssex County 24 species which are deep-sea forms not yet 
found in Massachusetts Bay, we shall have left 36 species which have 
not been found about Woods Hole. “These, added to the 240 actually 
found there, and 5 more from fresh water will give us a total of 281, 
the number of species now known to have been found at some time or 
other along the coast of Massachusetts or in her interior waters. 
XI. 
A specially notable feature in the late enumerations and additions 
to the fauna of southern Massachusetts is the great number of young 
tropical fishes and the comparative or fotalabsence of adults. Sixteen 
species were added in 1899 to the piscine visitors to Woods Hole and 
4 in 1900, and of these no less than 18 were the young of typical 
tropical forms. In round numbers, about 3 dozen species of tropical 
fishes have been found along the coast, represented only or almost only 
by the young—often the very young. In olden times when persons 
believed, or thought they believed, that all fishes laid eggs at the bot- 
tom, it would naturally have been inferred that such young must have 
been hatched close by, and that the parent fishes had spawned in the 
northern seas. Such an inference, with our present knowledge, is 
quite unjustifiable. We now know that a very large proportion of 
fishes develop pelagic or floating eggs and not demersal ones. If such 
fishes, then, would discharge their ripened ovarian burdens near the 
surface of the open sea where currents would carry them northward, 
«No less than 24 species were added to the piscifauna of southern Massachusetts, the majority of 
which were represented by young wanderers from the south, indicated by italics. 
Tarpon atlanticus, Opisthonema oglinum, Zrachinocephalus myops, Lucania parva, Athlennes hians, 
Gasterosteus gladiunculus, Polydactylus octonemus, Oligoplites saurus, Caranx bartholomaxi, Trachinotus 
goodei, Neomxnis griseus, Neomenis jocu, Neomenis apodus, Neomenis aya, Neomanis analis, Larimus 
fasciatus, Scienops ocellatus, Pogonias cromis, Chetodon ocellatus, Chetodon bricei [=Chzxtodon capi- 
stratus, young?], Chxtodon striatus, Canthidermis asperrimus, Spheroides spengleri, Sebastes marinus. 
bThe following species were added in 1899, all represented by young individuals except the 
Murena, Apogon, and Lactophrys tricornis: 
Muraena retifera (a specimen ‘6 feet 2inches in length,” was taken in a lobster pot; the species was 
previously known only from the type taken in deep water off the South Carolina coast); Holocentrus, 
Apogon maculatus, Epinephelus morio, Epinephelus adscensionis, Garrupa nigrita, Mycteroperea 
bonaci, Mycteroperca interstitialis, Eapomacentrus leucostictus, Scorpzena plumieri, Scorpena grandi- 
cornis, Teuthis coeruleus, Teuthis hepatus, Teuthis bahianus, Lactophrys triqueter, Lactophrys tri- 
cornis (an adult 15: inches long washed ashore). 
¢ The specimens obtained were young, but probably not of the first year. The size in inches and 
date of capture are specified in each case: Exocoetus rondeletii, October 13, 7.25 inches; Ocyurus 
chrysurus, October 4, 5.5 inches; Scarus croicensis, October 20,3 inches; Sparisoma flayescens, Noyem- 
ber 13, 6 inches. 
@ An adult specimen of Brama raii was obtained in a trap net of the Bureau of Fisheries at Nomans 
Land in September, 1904, 
