Auaust 13, 1897. ] 
represented in the zoological realm of 
North America, 31 genera and 107 species 
are recognized, and of these Cope had first 
made known about a quarter, 7 of the 
genera and 27 of the species having been 
described by himself. Shortly before his 
death, and during his last visit to Washing- 
ton he delivered to the National Museum 
the report on all the reptiles of North 
America which he had been long prepar- 
ing. This was prepared on the model of 
his ‘Batrachia of North America,’ but 
will, of course, be a much larger work, 
inasmuch as there are nearly three times 
as many reptiles as Batrachians.* His 
last elaborate memoirs dealt with special 
anatomical features of the serpents and 
lizards, which he examined with the view 
of perfecting the system of those groups. 
IV. 
In 1864 he became especially interested 
in the fresh-water fishes of the United 
States, and then as well as in succeeding 
years published enumerations and descrip- 
tions of many species. His first papers 
in 1864 and 1865 were ‘On a blind Silurid 
from Pennsylvania’ and a ‘Partial cata- 
logue of the cold-blooded Vertebrata of 
Michigan ;’ in 1868 he published ‘On the 
distribution of fresh-water fishes in the 
Allegheny region of southwestern Vir- 
ginia,’ and in 1869 appeared a ‘Synopsis 
of the Cyprinids of Pennsylvania.’ In 
addition to these, various minor papers 
‘were published and in some of them marine 
forms were considered. 
When in Europe Cope had purchased a 
large collection of skeletons of fishes from 
all parts of the world prepared by Professor 
Joseph Hyrtl, of Vienna, one of the most 
skillful practical anatomists of the day. 
He had a number of other skeletons made 
*Cope’s monograph of the reptiles will not in- 
clude the tortoises, those having been left to Dr. G. 
Baur to monograph. 
SCIENCE. 
233 
to represent missing types. With these as 
a basis he proceeded to recast the classifi- 
cation of fishes. The first contribution to 
the subject was embodied in an introduc- 
tory chapter of his ‘Contribution to the 
Ichthyology of the Lesser Antilles,’ pub- 
lished early in 1871. 
The same chapter, with the same title, 
“Observations on the Systematic Relations 
of Fishes,’ but with some modifications and 
additions, was later published in the Pro- 
ceedings of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science for 1871. This 
was a notable paper and replete with origi- 
nal observations of value. It was not, how- 
ever, up to the standard of his work on am- 
phibians and reptiles. The subject, indeed, 
was too vast and only a superficial exami- 
nation was made of special parts. It was 
not a classification based on the examina- 
tion of the entire structure, but rather an 
exposition of the development of a few par- 
ticular characters, which more experience 
subsequently convinced him were of less 
value than he had supposed. Nevertheless, 
in some respects the proposed classification 
was much in advance of those previously 
adopted, and useful hints were given for the 
further improvement of the system. 
Later Cope followed up this attempt at 
the reformation of the ichthyological system 
with several others especially treating of 
extinct types. One of them, ‘ On the classi- 
fication of the extinct fishes of the lower 
types,’ was published in the Proceedings of 
the American Association for 1877. The 
results of his studies were summarized, in 
1889, in ‘ A synopsis of the families of Ver- 
tebrata,’ and two years afterwards (1891) 
with modifications, in an article ‘On the non- 
actinopterygian Teleostomi.’ These results 
were very valuable and attention was for 
the first time directed to the importance 
and morphological significance of the skel- 
etal fin structures of the ancient fishes 
long confounded under the name of Gan- 
