l6o BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Predominantly southern. 



Molgula manhattensis Casco Bay to North Carolina. 



Styela partita Massachusetts Bay to North Carolina. 



Perophora viridis Vineyard Sound to Beaufort, N. C, and Bermuda. 



A. pellucidutn Vineyard Sound to North Carolina. 



Of uncertain position. 



Molgula arenata Long Island Sound to Nantucket. 



Didemnum lutarium New England coast south of Cape Cod. 



Amaroucium stellatum Vineyard Sound to North Carolina (?). 



A. pellucidutn constellatum .... Isles of Shoals ( ?) and Gloucester to Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. 



Thus, according to the information at our disposal, four of these eight species are 

 to be regarded as predominantly southern, while the remaining four have only been 

 authentically recorded from a very limited section of the coast. Only three species are 

 known to occur north of Cape Cod. 



12. PISCES. 



The group of fishes occupies a peculiar position in the present work. The total 

 number of species listed for this region is greater than that for any other group 

 except the Crustacea. There are 247(4-6 ?) species" representing i88( + 2 ?) genera 

 and 99 families. Only a very small proportion of these (30 species) have, however, 

 been taken in the dredge, owing, first, to the fact that the great majority of 

 the species do not ordinarily lie upon the bottom, and, secondly, to the fact 

 that even the largest dredges and trawls which were employed were not well 

 adapted to retaining active fishes. In general, we may say that this Survey has 

 dealt only incidentally with the fishes, since the latter do not, for the most part, 

 belong to the benthos, any more than do the Medusa? and free-swimming Crustacea. 

 Our knowledge of the distribution of fishes within the narrow limits of such a small 

 body of water, and of the causes determining this distribution, could be substantially 

 increased only by the use of quite other implements than the dredge. As regards the 

 catalogue, on the other hand, it seems likely that the list of local fishes as a whole is 

 more complete than that of any other extensive group of organisms. And even our 

 dredging has resulted in the capture of one fish which was not previously known south 

 of Cape Cod. This was the little blennioid species, Vivaria subbifurcata. 



For the past 40 years Mr. Vinal Edwards, throughout the year, and various nat- 

 uralists, during the summer months, have been engaged in an active search for new 

 fishes. To the extraordinary zeal of Mr. Edwards and his rare power of observing 

 small differences and recognizing unusual species has been due, in large measure, the 

 completeness of our knowledge of local fishes. As early as 1873 Prof. Baird published 

 a list of Woods Hole fishes, some of which had already been recorded for local waters by 

 Storer many years before. This list has received continual additions from year to 

 year in various publications of the United States Fish Commission. In 1898, Dr. H. M. 

 Smith brought together all the previously published records relating to local fishes 

 together with a large number of additional ones, and prepared the most complete list 



" Two species of marsipobranchii have been included with the true fishes in this computation. 



