Septembek 9, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



335 



he sinned against his own definitions. His 

 nomenclature has not been considered as 

 such and need not be. Respecting that, 

 hear what his obituary biographer had to 

 say. 



In the words of that eulogist, "in the 

 time that has passed since its publication 

 we have changed our ideals of names, and 

 discoveries of new genera or species, or in 

 the anatomy, have compelled changes in 

 our system. The nomenclature of the book 

 has become somewhat antiquated, and the 

 systematic arrangement is not entirely 

 suited to the present time." 



His eulogist has further truly remarked 

 that Dr. Storer 'used little of his energy 

 in searching for generalizations. ' In fact, 

 the only evidences he has left of any at- 

 tempts at generalization were a simple 

 table of the geographical distribution of 

 genera of North American fishes and the 

 isolation of the genus Amhlyopsis in a 

 family he called ' HypsseidEe. '* We may 

 pass them without comment save that they 

 were laudable attempts at least. 



I have alluded to these defects of Storer 's 

 work because for a long time they in- 

 fluenced our conceptions respecting the 

 fishes of the coast and were generally 

 adopted. The errors were repeated by 

 Dekay in 1842 and (pardon the expression 

 of personal experience) the discrepancy be- 

 tween the facts and the print sadly per- 

 plexed my boyish studies and for a time 

 made me fear that failure to understand 

 was the fault of my stupidity rather than 

 Storer 's and Dekay 's fault. In fact, they 

 remained uncorrected till I had to demon- 

 strate that the statements were inconsistent 

 with the facts and formulated the views 

 now prevalent. 



VI. 



In 1872 was published an article which 

 would not call for notice, since it is de- 

 voted to a limited locality and covers a 

 *Syn. Fishes N. A., pp. 4-8; 183, 184, 1846. 



very short period, were it not that the 

 locality is very near Woods Hole and that 

 it emanated from such distinguished ich- 

 thyologists as Dr. Franz Steindachner and 

 Professor Agassiz, under the editorship of 

 Col. Theodore Ljonan. The article is a 

 catalogue of the 'Fishes taken in the 

 Waquoit weir, April 18 to June 18, 1871, ' 

 and was published in the ' Sixth Annual Re- 

 port of the Commissioners of Inland Fish- 

 eries' (pp. 41-58, pi. 1-2). We are told 

 that 'most of the nomenclature is by Dr. 

 Franz Steindachner; and some notes by 

 Professor Agassiz are added marked A.' 

 Only forty-four species were obtained. 

 The nomenclature for the most part is that 

 prevalent during the previous half century 

 and not that which had been in general 

 use for the preceding decade and is pre- 

 valent now. Some interesting statistical 

 and biological data are given. No species 

 previously unknown to the state or region 

 in question were added. 



This was the last authoritative faunal 

 contribution of Massachusetts naturalists. 

 The labors of the excellent ichthyologists 

 of the state, chief of whom, for many years, 

 has been S. E. Garman, have been with ex- 

 cellent judgment devoted to the elucida- 

 tion of questions of morphology and taxon- 

 omy. The greater facilities enjoyed by the 

 United States Fish Commission have been 

 recognized and the task of formal registra- 

 tion has been left to those directly or in- 

 directly connected with that organization. 



VII. 



Before Storer 's 'History,' was com- 

 pleted and before the Waquoit weir was 

 examined, Professor Spencer F. Baird 

 visited Woods Hole and spent part of sev- 

 eral summers there with his family. His 

 first visit was made in 1863: he then 

 found forty-seven species and among them, 

 for the first time, the very young of 

 Tracliynotus carolinus and T. ovatus 



