CONTEIBUTION TO THE ICHTHYOLOGY OK THE LESSEE ANTILLES. 



My Edward I). Cope, A. M. 

 (Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 7, 1870.) 

 The present synopsis has been prepared from the following materials. A large collection in alcohol made at the 

 island of St. Martin's, by Dr. It. E. van Rijgersma, of that place. A considerable collection made at St Croix or 

 Santa Cruz, by Dr. It. E. Griffith, of this city, the specimens mostly dried and mounted. A second collection made 

 at the same island by Capt, Thos. Davidson of the navy, in alcohol. A collection embracing many specimens of large 

 size, made at St. Christopher's or Kit's by our fellow citi.cn Benjamin H. Lightfoot. The thanks of American 

 ichthyologists are due to these gentlemen lb,- the liberal maimer in which they have devoted themselves to the ink,- 

 ests ol this science. 



An identification of the species obtained by our member, Dr. 11. C. Wood, at New Providence, has been inserted 

 as furnishing important evidence as to the nature of the ichthyic fauna of a point so much nearer the American 

 coast. 



In general, the full determination of the flsh-fauna of the North Eastern region of the Lesser Antilles, will prove 

 ol much interest to science, as furnishing a point intermediate between the ground studied so well by Professor 

 Poey, ol Havana, and the island of Barbadoes, which has furnished the collections studied by Miiller and Troschel 

 To tins end we look with confidence to Dr. Rijgersma whose interest in the various natural sciences has already pro 

 duced important results in different departments. See on the Fossil Mammalia and Reptilia of Anguilla and St 

 Martin's, these Proceedings of this Society, 1869, pp. 183—150. 



[n determining these species of fishes, I have of course used chiefly the standard works of Cuvier and Valenciennes 

 andoi Gunther; the latter, as bringing the history of the species of fishes nunc nearly up to the time, is the more 

 ■mportant of the two. I have found the published researches of Poey on the fishes of Cuba a sine qua non, and the 

 essays of Gill have furnished many important points in the higher department of the system. The Plectognath 

 monographs of Hollard, and the writing of Bleeker on that type and the Apodes, cannot be done without in this field 

 The engravings are specimens of the Bien photometallic process, and are printed with the text They 

 illustrate the results of photography of drawings, on metallic plates. 



1: OBSERVATIONS ON Till: SYSTEMATIC RELATIONS OF THE PISHES, 



I. Preliminary. 

 The system of fishes as at present adopted in this country is the result of the labors of many naturalists but 

 Chiefly of Cuvier, Agassiz, Miiller, and Gill. Without going into the history of the subject at present it will be 

 proper to point out the principal modifications of Cuvier's system introduced by his three successors. The orders of 

 Cuvier, were the Ohondropterygii, MalacopUrygii, Acanthoptetygii, Plectognathi, and LophobranchiL Professor Agassiz 

 under the name of Placoides, adopted the first division, the second he called the Opioids, the third Glenoids and then 

 erected a fourth order under the name of Ganoids, which should embrace a portion of Cuvier's Chondropterygii (the 

 sturgeons), aportion of the Malacopterygii Ahdominales (the bony gars, etc.); and the two last orders of Cuvier Pro- 

 fessor Miiller following, withastill more complete anatomical investigation, especially into the soft parts, discerned three 

 iub-clatm In Cuvier's Ohondrostomi, which he named the Leptocardi (lanclet), Sermopteri (lamprey, etc.), and the 

 SelachU (Sharks, etc). In the then recently discovered Bepidosireu he saw on fourth sub-class, the Dipnoi. Having 

 instituted an investigation of Agassi/.' (ianoids, in an able memoir he purged it of the Plectognath and LophobmncMaU 

 divisions, which arc obviously not related to it. These, with the Malacopterygians and Acanthopter'ygians, he erected 

 into a sixth sub-class, the Teleostei. This sub-class containing the greater part of existing fishes, embraced six orders, 

 viz. : Aaanthopteri (Cuvier's Acanthoptergians), Anacanthini mew, for the Cod family, etc.), Pharyngognathi (new, 



AMERT. PHILOSO. SOC— VOL. XIV 112 



