.J UN 3 1881 



A Preliminary Check List of the Fishes 

 of Japan. 



By David Starr Jordan and John 0. Snyder. 



Lelancl Stan foni Jr. University, Palo Alto, Cal. 



The present paper contains a list of all the species of fishes recorded 

 on good authority from the waters of Japan, exclusive of Formosa, the 

 Liukiu Islands and the islands of the Kurile chain. The tropical fauna 

 of Formosa is doubtless substantially that of Borneo, Java and the neigh- 

 boring islands, but scarcely anything concerning it is yet placed on 

 record. -The only records from the Liukiu Islands are derived from 

 Commodore Perry's expedition and are very incomplete. These in- 

 dicate that the Liukiu Islands share the ordinary East Indian tropical 

 fauna. The fish fauna of the Kurile Islands is subarctic and probably 

 differs little from that of Kamchatka. All that is known of this fauna is 

 included in the paper of Jordan and Gilbert on the Fishes of Bering 

 Sea, included in the report of the United States Fur Seal Commission, 

 Vol. III. Tli j known species are also included in Jordan and Ever- 

 mann's Fishes of North and Middle America. 



In the present paper for the sake of convenience of reference, all 

 the species known from the Kuriles and from the Liukiu Islands are 

 added as footnotes. In footnotes also we have included a number of 

 species ascribed to Japan on authority which for one reason or another 

 we have regarded as doubtful. 



The species, 683 U1 number, which are considered by us as proba- 

 bly valid members of the Japanese fauna may be divided into five groups 

 on the basis of their natural distribution. These are, 1. Northern fishes, 

 or the Yeso group, having their center of distribution about Hakodate. 

 To this group belongs the Salmonidce, many of the Pleuronectidce (as 



