EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION. XXxi 
fishes, and Flatfishes are represented by many characteristic forms. 
Strongly contrasting with these are the tropical fishes, which mainly belong 
to families not at all represented in the extreme north, but occurring in all 
tropical seas, such as Anchovies, Garfishes, Flying-fishes, Mullets, Silver- 
sides, Horse-Mackerels (Carangidz), Porgies (Sparida), Groupers (Ser- 
ranidz), Wrasses (Labridze), and many others. , Intermediate between these 
extremes are the denizens of the coasts of the temperate zones. These are 
chiefly specific divergents—sometimes manifesting characters of generic 
importance—derived from types characteristic of the two other great zones. 
The most convenient course for the cataloguing of those fishes seems to 
be to combine those of the cold and temperate waters and only to differen- 
tiate those of the sub-tropical ones. Consequently, we shall have the faunal 
ranges already indicated, the Atlantic coast, the Floridian and Gulf coasts, 
and the Pacific coasts. 
II. POPULAR NAMES OF FISHES. 
The popular nomenclature of our fishes is varied and conflicting, and has 
been derived from many sources; it is the expression of reminiscences 
respecting the fishes with which the early immigrants were acquainted in 
their former homes, of the impressions which the physical characters of 
unknown kinds left on their minds, and of the information or misinforma- 
tion which sailors and travellers had brought to the common stock from 
other lands. It is also the expression, not only of the diversity of usage in 
the home country, but of the difference of opinion respecting likeness which 
resulted when different immigrants attempted to apply the names they knew 
at home to the animals they met with in the new settlements. 
The known fishes of England are few in number, and the emigrants knew 
few of them even, and knew those few very imperfectly. When the earliest 
of those emigrants lived, naturalists even had no idea of the diversity of 
animal life or the facts of geographical distribution. For instance, John 
Ray, the best naturalist of his age, who flourished in the last quarter of the 
same century, thought that there were only “near 500” fishes in the whole 
world! Naturally the common people were unprepared to appreciate the 
diversity of the new life which they were to see. 
The immigrants were astonished at the abundance of the fishes about 
‘their new home. The celebrated “Captain John Smith,” in 1616, took a 
very practical view of the subject, and has quaintly expressed it. ‘And is 
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