NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 93 



The Fishes of North and Middle America : a Descriptive Cata- 

 logue of the Species of Fish-like Vertebrates found in the 

 Waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama. 

 By D. S. Jordan, Ph.D., and B. W. Evermann, Ph.D. 

 Washington : Government Printing Office. 1898. 



In 1897 (' Zoologist,' p. 178) we drew attention in these 

 pages to the first part of this great publication. Part II. has 

 now appeared in the shape of another massive volume, bringing 

 up the pagination to a total of 2183, the number of genera 

 described to 798, while the described species are now no fewer 

 than 2510. 



In reading the descriptions of the gorgeous and bizarre 

 colouration of many of these fishes, one cannot but feel that 

 some of our speculations as to the meaning and service of 

 animal colouration will have to be qualified by much apparently 

 different piscatory evidence. How suggestive is the following 

 account of the young of the Garabaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus), 

 which are of a dusky scarlet, with intensely bright blue markings. 

 " These brilliant little fishes inhabit only large, deep rocky pools, 

 hiding under the seaweed of ledges, and frequently swimming out 

 into the open water of the pool. They are accompanied by the 

 adult, the usual uniform scarlet colour of which appears a distinct 

 lustreless yellow in the water." The fish is common on the coast 

 of California. 



Fossil Medusae. By Charles Doolittle Walcott. Washington : 

 Government Printing Office. 



This is one of the monographs of the United States Geolo- 

 gical Survey, and forms vol. xxx. of that series. As the author 

 remarks : " To the biologist the suggestion of silicified Medusae 

 is a violent attack upon his previous conceptions of such or- 

 ganisms, and the possibilities of their preservation as fossils in 

 any other manner than as faint impressions on fine limestone, 

 sandstone, or shale." They, however, occur in a silicified con- 

 dition, and have been found to belong to the Jurassic, Permian, 

 and Cambrian faunas. Their mode of occurrence in the Middle 

 Cambrian of Alabama " suggests at once the habit of living on a 



