INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The following annotated list of the fishes of Illinois is based on 

 the collections and field notes of the staff of the State Laboratory of 

 Natural History from the year 1878 to the fall of 1902. It was pre- 

 pared in the latter year by Mr. Large, while he was in the 

 service of the State Laboratory as its ichthyological assistant, His 

 manuscript was revised for the press in my office, but in a way to 

 make no material change in the substance of his statements, the 

 credit and responsibility for which remain, consequently, with him. 

 The analytical keys prepared by him, so far as they depart from 

 those already printed, are the results of his personal experience in 

 the identification of Illinois fishes, and are made with a view to 

 dispensing, so far as practicable, with obscure characters and 

 structures difficult of access. 



S. A. Forbes, 



Director of Laboratory. 

 January 6, 1903. 



