THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 43 



SPENCER FUI.I.ERTON BAIRD. 



1855. Report on the Fishes observed on the coasts of New Jersey and Long 

 Island during the summer of 1854. <Ninth Annual Report, Smiths. Inst, 



1854, pp- z^^y-zs^-^z^j- 



This is properly the first work on the fish-fauna of New- 

 Jersey, and will long stand among the first of its kind. As 

 stated by Dr. Bean this was the first systematic account of 

 marine fishes made by Baird and also the only one of its kind 

 which has emanated directly from his pen. It was here that he 

 originated the methods of obsen^ation of marine fishes which were 

 long afterwards applied in his greater researches on behalf of 

 the United States Government into the causes of the decrease of 

 food-fishes and their propagation in the waters of the United 

 States. The paper is the result of a six weeks' stay on the 

 New Jersey coast, principally at Beesley's Point, and Long 

 Island, New York. A!n account of the region is given, the 

 vernaculars employed by the fishermen, and notes on the habits, 

 occurrence, life, colors, etc., of each species. Baird was so for- 

 tunate at that time as to gain the good will of Messrs. Samuel 

 and Charles Ashmead, who 'resided at Beesley's Point, and whose 

 large collections from that place have found their way into the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where they have 

 been studied by the present writer and embraced, such as are 

 still extant, in the present report. Some of Baird's examples 

 were also sent to that institution from the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion many years ago and have also been examined in this con- 

 nection. 



Baird's paper was reprinted as a pamphlet with an index under 

 the following title :. 



^'Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, on 

 the Fishes of the New Jersey coast, as observed in the Summer 

 of 1854, by Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary, S. I. From 

 the Ninth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for 

 1854, Washington, Beverly Tucker, Senate Printer, June, 1855. 

 [8 vo, 40 pp.] 



