REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 187 



Doctor Smith, in his main article, enumerated 23''HUch species; in 

 1899 added 16*, and in 1900, 4 more''. No additional ones have been 

 discovered since '^ — a fact b}- no means surprising-. The additional 

 species, with one exception,, were known estrays from tropical waters; 

 the exception was supposed to have been previously unknown and was 

 described as Ch'detodon Jjrlcel. 



If we now first subtract from Goode and Bean's catalogue of the 

 fishes of Essex Count}^ 21 species which are deep-sea forms not yet 

 found in Massachusetts Bay, we shall have left 36 species which have 

 not been found about Woods Hole. These, added to the 240 actually 

 found there, and 5 more from fresh water will give us a total of 281, 

 the number of species now known to have been found at some time or 

 other along the coast of Massachusetts or in her interior waters. 



XI. 



A specially notable feature in the late enumerations and additions 

 to the fauna of southern Massachusetts is the great number of young 

 tropical fishes and the comparative or total absence of adults. Sixteen 

 species were added in 1899 to the piscine visitors to Woods Hole and 

 4 in 1900, and of these no less than 18 were the young of typical 

 tropical forms. In round numbers, about 3 dozen species of tropical 

 fishes have been found along the coast, represented only or almost only 

 b}'' the young — often the very young. In olden times when persons 

 believed, or thought they believed, that ail fishes laid eggs at the bot- 

 tom, it would naturally have been inferred that such young must have 

 been hatched close by, and that the parent fishes had spawned in the 

 northern seas. Such an inference, with our present knowledge, is 

 quite unjustifiable. We now know that a very large proportion of 

 fishes develop pelagic or floating eggs and not demersal ones. If such 

 fishes, then, would discharge their ripened ovarian burdens near the 

 surface of the open sea where currents would carry them northward, 



"No less than 24 species were added to the piscifauna of southern Massachusetts, the majority of 

 ■vrhich were represented by young wanderers from the soutli, indicated by italics. 



Tarpon atlanticus, Opisthonema ogliuum, Ti-achinocephalus myops, Lucania parva, Athlennes hians, 

 Gasterosteus gladiunculus, Pvlt/dadi/lus oclovanus, Oligoplites saurus, Caranx hartholomxi, Trachinotus 

 goodci, Neomxnis grineus, Neomxnis jocu, Ncoma'uis ajwdus, Neomeenis aya, Kcomienls analis, Larimus 

 fascia tus, Scisenops ocellatus, Pogonias cromis, Chxtodon occUatus, Chxtodon bricei, {=Chxlodon capi- 

 stratus, young?], Chxtodon striatus, Canthidermis asperrimus, Spheroides spenglcri, Sebastes marinus. 



&The following species were added in 1899, all represented by young individuals except the 

 Murtena, Apogon, and Lactophrys tricornis: 



Muraena retifera (a specimen "6 feet 2 inches in length," was taken in a lobster pot; the species was 

 previously known only from the type taken in deep water off the South Carolina coast) ; Holoccntrus, 

 Apogon maculatus, Epinephelus morio, Epinephelus adscensionis, Garrupa nigrita, Mycteroperca 

 bonaci, Mycteroperca interstitialis, Eupomacentrus leucostictus, Scorpeena plumieri, Scorpsenagrandi- 

 cornis, Teuthis coeruleus, Teuthis hepatus, Teuthis bahianus, Lactophrys triqueter, Lactophrys tri- 

 cornis (an adult 154 inches long washed ashore). 



'"The specimens obtained were young, but probably not of the first year. The size in inches and 

 date of capture are specified in each case: Exoccetus rondeletii, October 13, 7.25 inches; Ocyurus 

 chrysurus, October 4, 5.5 inches; Scarus croicensis, October 20, 3 inches; Sparisoma flavescens, Novem- 

 ber 13, 6 inches. 



rf An adult specimen of Brama rail was obtained in a trap net of the Bureau of Fisheries at Nomans 

 Land in September, 1904. 



