Xo. 496] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



287 



the author's Guidt to thi Study of Fishes. . . . His chief aim 

 has been to make it interesting to nature-lovers and anglers, and 

 instructive to all who open its pages." 



President Jordan can appeal to readers of any age. A de- 

 lightful account of the ''breeding habits of our smallest sea- 

 horse, prepared by the writer for a book of children's stories" is 

 found on page 453. In the first chapter the author says that to 

 '•understand a fish we must first go and catch one." It is 

 apparently with a boy companion that he starts for the old 

 swimming hole where they catch a sunfish — "a little, flapping, 

 unhappy, living plate of brown and blue and orange, with fins 

 wide-spread and eyes red with rage." In describing its life- 

 history, eating is said to be about the only thing a fish cares for. 

 The black swallower engulfs a fish many times larger than itself 

 (Gill) ; a single goosefish has been found with seven wild ducks 

 in its stomach ( (mode) ; the pike is a mere machine for the assimi- 

 lation of other organisms: and the bluefish is an animated chop- 



ally, from Branehiostoma to Malthopsis. In behalf of stability, 

 ' 'the sole function of the law of priority," several familiar and 

 established names have disappeared. Lepisosteus replaces the 

 "more correct but also more recent spelling. Lepidosteus. " The 

 general reader, interested in the fishes rather than their names, 

 will find that ichthyological terminology has been made as 

 unobtrusive as possible. Such terms as slippery-dick and pop- 

 eye grenadier make amends for considerable (J reek, and common 

 names are freely used. 



The reading of this book is not like a visit to a museum, or 



part this is due to quotations from anglers, classic and modern, 

 including Van Dyke's apostrophe to the ouananiche. Chiefly it 

 is due to the author's own experiences and such unexpected com- 

 ments as— "This is the noted Aweoweo of the Hawaiians which 



