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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLV 



perca 1 . Beside Percopsis and Columbia, he adds to this group a 

 genus Aplnrdodrrus, this form without an adipose fin consti- 

 tuting a distinct family. He notes that the study of the anatomy 

 of the last genus does not indicate any real affinity with the 

 sunfishes. 



In the same Annals, Mr. Regan discusses the allies of the 

 genus Cirrhites. In this group he finds five distinct families. 



Over thirty years ago, when the great house of Godeffroy, of 

 Hamburg, was dominating the trade of the South Seas, this 

 company undertook the establishment of a natural history mu- 

 seum in Hamburg, and with this the publication of a journal 

 called the Journal des Museum Godeffroy, in which the life of 

 the South Seas should be set forth. This journal was sumptu- 

 ously printed, and illustrated w ith expensive colored plates. One 

 of the important articles was that descriptive of Andrew Gar- 

 rett's Fische der Siidsee, Andrew Garrett having made an ex- 

 tensive collection of fishes in various islands, and having made 

 colored paintings of a large number of the species. During the 

 time, 1876-1881, the first two volumes of the Fische der Siid- 

 see appeared, the author being Dr. Albert Gunther, keeper of 

 the British Museum. The work ended abruptly in the middle 

 of the family of Labrida?. The great house of Godeffroy, having 

 undertaken in Hurope enterprises beyond its control, went into 

 collapse, and the publication of its journal was suspended. In 

 1909, under the management of Friedrichsen & Company (pub- 

 lishers), the work has been resumed and brought to completion, 

 with the assistance of Mr. C. Tate Regan, of the British Museum. 

 This has been made possible by the "munificence of the family 

 of Dr. Wilhelm Martin von Godeffroy." 



This completed work is a monument to the industry and keen 

 intelligence of Dr. Gunther, and it is the most important treatise 

 concerning the fishes of the region between Hawaii and Borneo 

 known as the South Seas. In the different papers by Jordan and 

 Evermann, and their associates, Snyder, Fowler and Seale, much 

 of the same ground has been covered, and Dr. Gunther gives 

 special credit to "the energy" of these American authors in 

 their investigations, particularly of the Hawaiian and Samoan 

 archipelagos. Comparing this work with Jordan & Seale 's 

 "Fishes of Samoa," we find a general agreement on all matters 

 where adequate material is present. The American writers gen- 

 erally have given proposed new species the benefit of doubt, by 

 not reducing them to synonymy until it is shown that the new 

 name is a mere synonym. On the other hand, Dr. Gunther has 



