96 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXIX. 
one list at the expense of the other. All evidence concurs in fixing 
the date of that connection at some time prior to the Pleistocene, 
probably in the early Miocene. When geological data shall be ade- 
quate definitely to determine that date, it will give us the best known 
measure of the rate of evolution in fishes. 
Of the 82 families of fishes represented at Panama, all but 3 
(Cerdalidz, Cirrhitide and Nematistiida) occur also on the Atlantic 
side of. Central America; while of the 218 genera of our Panama 
list, no fewer than 170 are common to both oceans. The well 
developed families Centropomida and Dactyloscopidz are peculiar 
to the tropical faunas now separated by the Isthmus of Panama." 
In the Journal? of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia 
(Vol. 12), Mr. Henry W. Fowler has a valuable report on the fishes 
collected in Sumatra by Harrison and Heller; 248 species are 
embraced in this collection. This includes a number of new species. 
'This paper contains notes on the little known forms, with excellent 
plates of many of them. The paper will be of great value in the 
study of the East Indian fauna. Several new subgenera are pro- 
posed. Deveximentum is a new genus allied to Leiognathus, based 
on Z. insidiator; the same species is the type of the earlier name 
Equula. 
In the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Vol. 3, 
series 3, the late Cloudsley Rutter records a few fishes from the Gulf 
of California. He unites the genus Villarius with Ictalurus and 
describes a new Eleotrid Goby under the name of Pycnomma semis- 
quamatum. ‘The genus is certainly close to the imperfectly known 
genus Gymneleotris. A new description of Em/emaria oculocirris is 
given. 
In the same Proceedings Dr. Charles H. Gilbert has notes and 
descriptions of fishes of the Pacific. Ne/uma mazatlana, new species, 
from Mazatlan; Nemichthys avocetta, which is properly the same as 
N. scolopaceus; Schedophilus heathi, new species, from Monterey ; 
Xeneretmus infraspinatus, new species, from Cape Flattery. Cleve- 
Jandia rose is identical with Clevelandia ios; Rathbunella alleni, new 
species, from Monterey; Auchenopterus mexicanus, new species, from 
La Paz. 
1 The supposed character of the dorsal rays in Nemichthys So it 
from other eels is fallacious, being produced by the drying of the specime 
