186 RErORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



IX. 



Conspicuous publishers of an enumeration of Massachusetts fishes 

 were G. Brown Goode and Tarleton 11. Bean, connected with the 

 United States Fish Commission. Under the form of " ACatalog-ue of 

 the Fishes of Essex County, Massachusetts, including the Fauna of 

 Massachusetts Bay and the Contiguous Waters", they gave the names 

 of all the species known from the state. "It is believed to be com- 

 plete to the date of publication." The catalogue was published in 

 1879 in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute (XI, pp. 1-3S). The sum 

 total listed amounted to "1S3 species, of which 163 inhabit salt or 

 brackish water, 20 fresh water." The "number of marine species 

 from within the limits of Massachusetts Bay * * * is 133; while 

 29 are from the deeper offshore waters in the vicinit}' of Georges, Le 

 Have, Browns, and Sable Island Banks." Only 20 of the species have 

 exactly the same names that were adopted by Storer. 



As just indicated, a number of the species enumerated bv Goode 

 and Bean have never been found except in deep offshore waters, and 

 consequently not within the limits of the state or even very near it. 

 There are 21 such, and they should be excluded from the fauna of the 

 state. These are deep-sea or pelagic forms, which are more foreign 

 to the real fauna of Massachusetts than are the fishes of Florida or of 

 Britain. 



The catalogue of Goode and Bean, on the whole, is a well-considered 

 and valuable memoir, brought up to the date of its publication. 



X. 



The last census of the fishes of Massachusetts relates to a part of the 

 coast, but that the most important from an ichthyological point of 

 view at least; it is a catalogue of "The Fishes Found in the Vicinity of 

 Woods Hole," by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, chief of the division of scientific 

 inquiry. United States Fish Commission, now Deputj^ Commissioner 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries. It was published in advance and appears 

 in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1897 (XVII, 

 pp. 85-111, with folded map). It was supplemented in two later vol- 

 umes (XIX, 309, 310; XXI, 32). These give a most useful summary 

 of the fishes of the region indicated, enriched with notes respecting 

 occurrence, comparative rarity or abundance, and time of appearance. 

 The species are arranged in the sequence adopted by Jordan and 

 Evermann, and their nomenclature also is accepted. The number of 

 species recorded in the main list was 209; in 1899, 16; and in 1900, 1. 

 The present number of fishes recorded up to date is 229 marine species, 

 and if to these we add 11 fresh-water ones occurring in the vicinity, 

 we have no less than 210. It is remarkable that at so late a daj^ so 

 many species previousl}"" unknown to the coast should liave ])een found. 



