244 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [538] 
ralists to identify the species that they may meet with. To this end, 
the portions of the descriptions relating to strictly microscopic parts 
have frequently been omitted, when more obvious characters, sufficient 
to distinguish the species, could be found. 
References to the plates at the end of this volume have been inserted, 
and also to the pages in the first part of the report where brief descrip- 
tions, remarks on the habits, or other information may be found. 
The catalogue of the Crustacea was prepared by Mr. 8. I. Smith and 
Mr. Oscar Harger. The rest of the catalogue is by Professor A. E. Ver- 
rill, with the exception of the descriptions of the insects, which have 
been furnished by Dr. A. S. Packard and Dr. G. H. Horn; the Pycno- 
gonids, which have been determined by Mr. 8. I. Smith; and a few 
of the Bryozoa, which were identified by Professor A. Hyatt, who also 
furnished most of the figures of the species belonging to that class. 
Hitherto there has been no attempt to enumerate the marine inverte- 
brates of the entire southern coast of New England. Several partial 
lists have been published, however, and these have been of considera- 
ble use in the preparation of the following catalogue. 
In the Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts, by Dr. A. A. 
Gould, 1841, numerous localities for shells on the southern coast of 
Massachusetts are mentioned. 
A catalogue of the shells of Connecticut, by James H. Linsley, was 
published in the American Journal of Science, vol. 48,1845: In “ Shells 
of New England,” 1851, Dr. William Stimpson gave much accurate in- 
formation concerning the distribution of our Mollusca. In 1869 Dr. 
G. H. Perkins published a very useful catalogue, in the Proceedings of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xiii, p. 109, entitled “‘ Mol- 
luscan Fauna of New Haven.” 
The “ Report on the Mollusca of Long Island, New York, and of its 
Dependencies,” by Sanderson Smith and Temple Prime, in the Annals 
of the Lyceum of Natural History, vol. ix, p. 377, 1870, also contains 
much useful information. 
A paper by Dr. Joseph Leidy, entitled ‘Contributions toward a 
Knowledge ef the Marine Invertebrate Fauna of the Coasts of Rhode 
Island and New Jersey,” in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy, 
vol. ili, 1855, although very incomplete, contains the only published 
lists of the Annelids and Crustacea of this region. In his “Catalogue 
of North American Acalephe,” 1865, Mr. A. Agassiz has enumerated 
all the species discovered on this coast up to that time. Other papers 
will also be referred to in the synonymy. 
