INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
The fishes of North America are as yet too little known, and the amount of new materials 
for further investigations too great, also, to warrant anything like an attempt on the present 
occasion to establish a natural series. After the various groups have been treated of in a 
series of monographs, as already begun by us,* we shall he better prepared to do justice to that 
part of our subject. 
We have spoken at some length upon two groups—the cataphracti, or mailed cheeks, and the 
embiotocoids, or viviparous family, both of them having numerous representatives along the 
Pacific coast. They constitute the most predominant feature of the iclithyic fauna of that region 
of the North American continent, together with the tracliinids and the heterolepids, which 
seem to bring into closer relationships the percoids and the cottoids, properly so called. The 
true percoids themselves appear isolated west of the Rocky Mountain range. 
The family of Sphyraenidce is represented by one species of Sphyraena. 
The scianoids, so far as observed, are few in numbers, and remind us of the Atlantic types ; 
whilst other families present several new genera. 
Not a single species of sparoid has as yet come to our knowledge. 
The scarcity of scomberoids is a curious feature in the fauna of our western coast. But we 
venture to say that further researches will bring to light many more of them. 
As to the atherinoid family, we find in California a rather large species designated under the 
name of “ smelt” by the settlers, probably on account of its delicacy, and which is, truly 
speaking, an ally of the “ silver-side” or “ silver-fish” of our Atlantic coast, and “pesce del 
rey ” and “ pescadilla del rey ” of Central and South America. The <£ silver-fish ” being of a 
diminutive size, even when fully grown, its esculent qualities have remained unnoticed by either 
fishermen or gastronomers. The “ pesce del rey ” tells its own story; an allied species has 
been described and figured in vol. II of Lieutenant Gilliss’ “ Report.” 
The blennioids appear to he more numerous than the preceding ones, new generic types 
having been found ( Xiphidion , Apodichthys, Cebidichtliys, and Anarrichthys ) along with species 
of known genera ( Blennius , Gunnellus.) 
The gobioids, properly so called, are comparatively scarce, two species of the genus Gobius 
constituting the entire known list. 
The cyclopterids, or Discoboli , are represented by two species also, one of which is a 
Lepadogaster , the other a Liparis. 
The labroids, properly so called, are anything but numerous, if the embiotocoids are 
considered as a separate family. We think, however, that many more will be found 
hereafter. 
The pomacentrid family, or marine labroids, with pectinated scales, numbers one species, 
* Set) “Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge,’’ vol. Ill, 1852. 
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