AN ANNOTATED LIST OF PUGET SOUND FISHES. 



By TREVOR KINCAID, University of Washington. 



Prepared at the Request of and Issued by 



L. H. DARWIN, 



State Fish Coinviissioner. 



So many Inquiries have been made in recent years in regard to our 

 native fishes, it was deemed advisable to publish a brief popular survey 

 of our flsh fauna for the benefit of those interested in the marine lite 

 of this region. 



The most recent list of the species of fish found in Puget Sound 

 was published by Professor E. C. Starks of Stanford University in 1911. 

 He enumerates 168 forms of fish' life known to exist in our waters or 

 recorded from contiguous Canadian territory with the presumption that 

 they occur in Puget Sound. Several species have come to light since 

 his paper was published and there is little doubt the number of kinds 

 of fish in this region will be increased to at least 200 in the near future. 



Many of the species now on record are extremely rare, although 

 this may simply mean we do not know where or how to search for 

 them. In some cases but a single specimen has ever been seen and a 

 number are recorded from a knowledge of less than half a dozen 

 examples. Some are strays from southern waters or have straggled 

 down from Alaska, while others have been swept into Puget Sound by 

 some unusual circumstance from the open ocean where they normally 

 reside. 



The richness of the Puget Sound fauna is doubtless due to the fact 

 that we have here a meeting place for two great centers of marine 

 evolution. Many species of animals originally developed in Alaska have 

 gradually extended their range till they reached the Sound, while from 

 the other great center off the shores of California a similar migration 

 has occurred in times past. Thus Puget Sound is the southern limit 

 of the distribution of many northern forms, while it is likewise the 

 northern limit of a number of southern species. 



The greatest diversity of fishes within our territory is to be found 

 in the waters about the San Juan Islands, where a surprising diversity 

 in depth and shore conformation make for a remarkable display of 

 marine life. The central and southern sections of the Sound are, how- 

 ever, well provided with representatives of the finny tribes, as may 

 well be seen when the proper equipment is brought into use to compel 

 them to emerge from their hidden haunts. 



Owing to the limits of space it was deemed inadvisable to give 

 detailed descriptions of the various species, but rather to point out a 

 few of the more salient characteristics and to depend mainly on the 

 use of copious illustrations to delineate as many as possible of the 

 local forms. For those desiring to study our fishes in a more extended 

 manner we would advise the use of the great monograph of the fishes 

 of America published by Jordan and Evermann as Bulletin 47 of the 



