FISHES OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
21 
C. Nutting, University of Iowa; Mr. Fred. M. Chamberlain, assistant naturalist, 
and Mr. A. B. Alexander, fishery expert, steamer Albatross; Prof. John O. Snyder 
and Mr. Walter K. Fisher, Stanford University. The Albatross devoted the entire 
spring and summer to the investigations, running many lines of dredgings, develop¬ 
ing fishing banks about the islands, and collecting in favorable localities, including 
Laysan, Bird, and Necker islands, some 800 miles to the northwest. The vessel 
returned to San Francisco September 1. 
The collections made during the investigations carried on during these two sea¬ 
sons are doubtless the largest and most important ever made in the Pacific. They 
embrace many thousand specimens of fishes and even greater numbers of crustaceans, 
mollusks, and other invertebrates. The various groups have been assigned to special¬ 
ists for study, and a number of reports have already been received. The early pub¬ 
lication of all in the Bulletin of this Commission is contemplated. Those so far issued 
include a general report by the present writers (1902), a statistical report by John N. 
Cobb (1902), two papers giving descriptions of new genera and species (1903) by the 
present writers, a report on the shore fishes collected by the Albatross , by John O. 
Snyder (1901), several papers on the birds of Laysan Island, by Walter K. Fisher 
(1903) and Dr. C. C. Nutting (1903), and a short paper by Jordan and Snyder (1904) 
on a small collection Sent in by Mr. Max Schlemmer, from Laysan Island; also a short 
paper by Henry W. Fowler (1901), containing references to a number of Hawaiian 
fishes and descriptions of a few species thought by him to be new. 
The preparation of the final report on the immense collection of fishes has 
involved an enormous amount of work, including a critical examination and study of 
all literature pertaining directly or indirectly to the ichthyology of the Pacific. 
Not only were the thousands of specimens of the Hawaiian collections examined 
critically and the characters of eacli carefully determined and tabulated, but advantage 
was taken of the possession of the very large collection of fishes made in Samoa in 
1902 by Doctor Jordan. The study of that collection has thrown much light on 
many questions previously obscure and has contributed greatly toward a proper 
understanding of the Hawaiian fish-fauna. Similar use was made of the very exten¬ 
sive collections made by Jordan and Snyder in Japan in 1900. 
In the examination of the specimens and in various matters connected with the 
preparation of this report, the writers have been assisted greatly by Messrs. Edmund 
Lee Goldsborough and Clarence Hamilton Kennedy of the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries, and by Mr. Henry Weed Fowler of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 
Mr. Fowler and Mr. Goldsborough spent several months at,. Stanford University 
making comparative measurements of specimens. Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Golds¬ 
borough rendered valuable assistance in verifying descriptions and references in 
synonymy. Dr. William Converse Kendall and Mr. Thomas E. B. Pope of the 
Bureau of Fisheries also assisted in the verification of descriptions and the prepara¬ 
tion of tables. To all these gentlemen we take pleasure in expressing our indebted¬ 
ness. And we wish again to express our deep obligations to Mr. E. Louis Berndt, 
the efficient inspector of the fish market at Honolulu, for his keen interest in our 
work. His knowledge of the fishes of the region enabled him to add many species 
to our collections which we otherwise would not have secured. 
